


Pixie of Gotham

by AbyssalGuardian



Series: Pixie of Gotham [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien salt, Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Big Brother Jason, Don't Like Don't Read, Lila salt, Magic, MariBat, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:20:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 55,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24659776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbyssalGuardian/pseuds/AbyssalGuardian
Summary: Growing up on the streets of Gotham was tough, but it had worked out pretty well for Marinette. At least until she’d been caught and adopted by a couple from Paris.Really, what was Gotham to do without its Pixie?Alternatively: Marinette is a magical badass who becomes the unwitting ruler of Gotham's Underworld.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Pixie of Gotham [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815916
Comments: 816
Kudos: 1407
Collections: Astral_Phoenix108's Library





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> New story! Hope you like it!

Growing up on the streets of Gotham, while difficult, had actually worked out pretty well for Annette, also known as Nettie. She’d been abandoned on the streets after her mother had died, her father never having been in the picture to begin with. Nettie managed by helping out various tailors and seamstresses, though she did get some help from a few of the other street kids, one of which had claimed her as his sister.

Jason couldn’t watch her all the time, however, which is how she ended up being pseudo-adopted by some of the Rogues. It had started with the Riddler. She’d insulted his clothing choices at just five years old, claiming she could design better and delivering on that promise. She was too young to make them herself but he’d been suitably impressed. In exchange for her fashion expertise he made sure she was getting an excellent education.

After Riddler had been Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Harley had called her Pixie and asked about the clothes she’d designed for Riddler, who would never give away her name. Nettie was happy to design clothes for people, and when she had sketched out rough concepts for Harley and Ivy they had been mildly amazed. They teamed up with Nygma to set up an abandoned warehouse for her, and gave her the codename Pixie.

While the warehouse was being prepared for her, Nettie met and assisted a nice lady who called herself a witch and took it upon herself to teach Nettie all about magic, giving her various books to help her learn. Nettie loved magic. It came to her very naturally and was really helpful in tight situations.

The warehouse was officially ready for her just after she’d turned six. She’d somehow managed to keep everything from Jason, though he did seem a bit suspicious. The magic she’d been learning helped with that.

With the warehouse all set and ready she placed magical protections all around the property and came up with a glamour to use when going out as Pixie. Her outfit may change but a couple things wouldn’t: glowy golden eyes and slightly pointed ears. She would also always have something to obscure a good portion of her face, whether it be a mask or a veil.

With everything set and ready she was able to take on clients, all of which were Rogues, and all of which had to be approved by her pseudo-parents. Nobody was allowed to meet her unless she specifically requested it or all three ‘parents’ agreed it would be safe. One person was permanently on the ‘keep away’ list: Joker.

She spent all the time she wasn’t designing for clients with Jason, who was only four years older than she was, until he got picked up by the Batman when she was 8 and he was 12, thus becoming Jason Todd-Wayne. She had to hide from him then, when he was out as Robin. When he freaked out at her disappearance she allowed him to catch glimpses of her, and sometimes left him things to reassure him that she was fine.

Nettie was scared for him though, so she put out a notice as Pixie that he was not to be seriously injured. She’d gained a lot of power over her years as the Pixie of Gotham, and had enough bigger Rogues to back her up. There were very few who would risk their ire. Especially after she got caught up in one of Scarecrow’s attacks. The beat down he’d received for that was more than enough for people to be wary of crossing her. She ended up creating an app with Nygma specifically for the Rogues, one that allowed _her_ to keep track of their shenanigans and _them_ to double check with her to make sure she wouldn’t be caught in the crossfire. And to make sure she wouldn’t come after them for doing something she didn’t approve of.

With her magic and the lessons she’d been getting from some of her more... unstable clients, she was a force to be reckoned with.

Being forced to hide from Jason didn’t mean she didn’t want to see him. She kept track of his progress as Robin, eventually meeting and befriending a boy named Tim Drake who basically stalked the vigilantes. He was determined to find out who they were, though Nettie never let on that she knew. He was a year older than she was, and he came from a rich family, but he enjoyed her company. During that first year they’d met they spent a lot of time together, becoming good friends and bonding over their shared interests and enthusiasm for vigilante watching. He ended up on her ‘do not touch’ list too.

One day, around a year after she’d met Tim and three years since she began gaining traction as Pixie, something was... _off_. She could sense it. When she investigated she found out the police were planning a raid near where she was supposed to be, and she knew something would go wrong. She warned her parental figures, as well as Tim (separately, they didn’t know about each other), that she might get caught during the raid. They were all really worried about it, so Nygma gave her a new untraceable cellphone with all their numbers in it just in case. She got Tim’s number later, and told him she’d text him about what happened after the raid when she could.

The raid happened and she ended up being right. A French couple that were visiting the city caught her while she was trying to avoid the cops and brought her straight to the cops she had been avoiding. There was no way out of it. The French couple was interested in adopting her and if she tried to explain that she already had some pseudo-parents, and who those parents were, it probably wouldn’t go over well.

She couldn’t get out of it. And with the French couple, who she later learned were named Tom and Sabine, _determined_ to adopt _her specifically_ after being the ones to catch her on the street, there was little chance for her to escape their grasp. The police had no problems with this, and she had no way to contact anyone to make sure it didn’t happen without getting caught. Street kids were notorious for running, and she was under constant surveillance.

Three days later she was stuck on a flight to Paris with a new name and no guarantee she’d be able to go back. She wasn’t even able to check her phone, which she’d hidden away in a pocket dimension, until they’d brought her back to the bakery they owned and lived above. She had over a hundred missed texts and calls from four of her most important people, and when she checked the app, simply and rather cryptically named _Pixie_ , all she saw was chaos.

Which meant she had to manage damage control. From thousands of miles away. She started with sending out texts explaining what had happened. Then she posted on the app about what’d happened.

Nobody was happy about it, but unless they wanted to kidnap her from Paris there wasn’t anything they could do about it. So she decided that she would stay with the couple that had unintentionally stolen her away, and use it as a learning experience. Immersion was a good way to learn a language, and with her out of Gotham nobody had to worry about her being caught up in attacks.

Not that she couldn’t still get back on her own. Her magic studies _had_ included a way to make a set of standing portals connecting two locations. She’d just have to find and purchase a place to set everything up. She did get paid for her commissions. Very well, in fact.

She’d have to remember the time difference though, and work around her newly dubbed Maman and Papa.

She’d make it work.


	2. Chapter 2

Making it work was a lot easier than she thought it’d be. Her new parents were extremely busy due to the popularity of their bakery, and she rarely saw them outside of mealtimes or when she was asked to help out. She had a feeling she was going to be _very_ proficient when it came to baking. She’d have to learn more about cooking to make sure she didn’t only eat sweets.

She took the time to wander around the city and do a bit of research, eventually finding a good place to set up shop: a large abandoned greenhouse on the outskirts of the city. She paid for it in cash, put up all sorts of protections in and around it, and began her renovations.

The old Victorian-style greenhouse was beautiful, though the exterior was a bit rundown. It could almost pass for a house, if it weren’t for all the glass. Which she promptly charmed to be one-way. The interior was a bit overrun with plant life, but it was easily taken care of. Her favorite part was the tree in the middle of the greenhouse, a beautiful willow overlooking a small pond.

The place was perfect for her to practice her magic, as well as maintain a garden for her more temperamental plants. All she had to do was restore some of the dark wooden shelves, bring in a bookcase, purchase a nice cauldron and some ingredients, and put away all of the stuff she’d been keeping in her pocket dimension.

The next thing she needed to do was connect the place to her warehouse back in Gotham, which was pretty easy. She’d had a door in her warehouse prepped and ready for it just in case. Preparing the back door of her new greenhouse took very little time, the spell to connect them even less, and soon, only a little over a week after she’d arrived in Paris, she was able to return to Gotham whenever she wanted. Within reason.

Nettie’s new parents had enrolled her in school, so she couldn’t just disappear whenever without getting in trouble. The kids in her class were interesting, at least. _They might just generate more drama than my Rogues,_ was the first thing she thought when she saw them. Which was saying something. She could tolerate them, at the very least. Talking to them was a good way to practice her French, get used to responding to her new name, and keep rumors about herself from spreading too far. The only one she really had a problem with was the mayor’s daughter, Chloe.

Chloe wasn’t used to being challenged, and Nettie was in no place to challenge her, so she made sure to accentuate her timid, kind demeanor. It worked like a charm. All she had to do was ramp up her normal personality to like, 11. While maintaining a polite distance from the class. Easy.

She stopped being new and exciting after the first month. At which point she had gone back to Gotham around five times to take care of some things. She’d been able to visit everyone except Tim, who was a bit too obsessed with the vigilantes for her to show her magic to. They texted regularly and called sporadically, though, so she still got to talk to him. When she visited Gotham she was only ever seen as Pixie, and everything was carefully planned to keep her off the bat’s radar.

Even the _Pixie_ app was programmed to delete itself upon the phone owner’s arrest, only able to be reinstalled by getting in touch with the Riddler. They weren’t taking any chances.

She wanted to spend more time in Gotham, but with the time difference and social expectations she wasn’t able to be around as often as she’d like. There was a bright side though. While on a walk to familiarize herself with the city she’d stumbled upon an old man who had odd traces of magic on him. He’d been able to sense the magic on her as well, and had asked that she stop by his shop occasionally to help him out.

Which is when he told her about the miraculous and began training her as the next Guardian. Because her life wasn’t complicated enough. At least the Kwami were nice to her. They would encourage her during her training, and were very helpful in furthering her magical knowledge. She would rotate through miraculous to learn about each Kwami, and she would practice with their transformations and her ability to summon their weapons in her greenhouse.

It was nice to have something to work toward. School, once she’d gotten used to the language, was easy. Especially compared to the stuff Nygma had her doing. He'd taken his role in making sure she was educated _very_ seriously.

The breaks the school had were awkward, as she had to spend more time with the couple that’d adopted her. Not that they did much with her other than bake and play the occasional video game. They had seemed really excited to have a child when they adopted her back in Gotham, but it was clear they didn’t have much time to properly raise one. Which is how she got them to agree to let her go back to Gotham for the summer, under the pretense of staying with her Uncle Ed.

She’d still have to come back periodically for her training with Master Fu, but with her _officially_ being back in Gotham she could do more than she had during the school year. Like meet up with Tim while he stalks the vigilantes. And do more commissions for her Rogue clientele.

They’d actually begun putting together their own form of government for the underground in her absence, as she knew from her sporadic visits. It was kinda weird that they would establish a form of self-governing. Made even more so when she found out that _she_ was given a special sort of veto power and was at the top of the list for those off-limits to schemes.

She decided to just ignore it as long as she could. Which was a bit difficult considering they had an unofficial meeting hall.

But that was something she could worry about some other time. For now she focused on messaging Tim, who was as yet unaware of her return for the summer.

_Nettie:  
Guess what!_

_Tim:  
What?_

_Nettie:  
I’m back~_

_Tim:  
Wait  
Really?  
Are you serious? _

_Nettie:  
Yep!  
I’m super serious  
So where you at? I wanna see you!_

_Tim:  
Top of that one building  
You know the one_

_Nettie:_  
_Gotcha_  
_Be there in 15_

True to her word, Nettie arrived precisely fifteen minutes later, greeting Tim by tackling him in an enthusiastic hug, which he promptly returned.

He pulled back a little bit, arms still around her, to question her presence. “I thought you got whisked off to Paris, how’d you manage to get back here? The new parental units sick of you already?” The last question, while teasing, was laced with a bit of hope. He’d missed her terribly, after all.

“If only! I convinced them to let me come back for the summer. As far as they know I’m staying with an uncle of mine. Between you and me...”

“You’ve always known how to take care of yourself. Even if you refuse to show me where you hide away.” She smiled as he tried to hide his pout, burying her face in his chest and giving him a squeeze before releasing him and stepping away.

“So how have things been since I got nabbed? Figure out the vigilantes yet?” She plopped herself down on the ledge of the roof, Tim leaning beside her.

“Yep. Once I took a closer look at the first Robin it was easy.”

“How’s the current one doing?”

He gave her a searching look. “He was acting weird for a while after you got snatched off the streets. Seemed like he was looking for something but couldn’t find it. Got any idea why that is?”

She sighed. “I may or may not have known him before he got picked up by the bat. And he may or mayn’t have declared himself my big brother.”

“Mayn’t?” He looked at her in mild confusion, completely bypassing everything else she’d said.

She defended herself. “Just because it’s a rare contraction doesn’t mean it isn’t real!”

“Who the hell says ‘mayn’t?’ Wait, back up. He declared himself your _what now?!"_

“Oh look over there! It’s Batman!” She pointed off in a random direction, the dark knight himself coincidentally passing by right as she said the words.

Tim squinted at her. “Maybe you _are_ magic.” He pulled out his camera to take pictures like the stalker he was. “This conversation isn’t over.”

“What conversation?”

“Nettie!”

“Oh look it’s Robin!”

Tim let out a long, drawn-out sigh of exasperation. Just as she’d stated, Robin was nearby, and her words had caused him to look over, eyes widening in surprise at the sight of her as he quickly began to hurry over.

“Oh shit. Uhh, I gotta go! See ya later Timmy!” And with that she was hurtling down the fire escape, Robin in hot pursuit.

He managed to catch her, but only because she let him.

“Nettie where the fuck have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” He pulled her into a hug.

She returned the hug, happy to see him after so long. “Yeah, about that. So I might’ve gotten snatched during a raid and forcefully adopted. By foreigners. I’m allowed to stay in Gotham over the summers though!”

He pulled away so he could look at her. “How do you always get yourself into trouble?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Oh, is that Batman?” When he turned to look she ran off, shouting a quick “bye Robin,” over her shoulder. And then she was gone, on her way back to her warehouse.

It was time for her to meet some clients as Pixie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! Next chapter is in the works.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's the next chapter. There are a few words that may confuse some people, melanistic and melanism. Both are a way of referring to the same rare condition of an organism having darker coloring than is normal. Melanism is essentially the opposite of albinism, instead of minimal pigment there's excess pigment.

She spent more time as Pixie than Nettie that summer, which was fine. She didn’t need to get snatched off the streets _again_. The only times she really went out as Nettie was when she wanted to visit Tim, appease Jason, or had to visit Fu back in Paris, though she wore a glamour when visiting Paris because, you know, she wasn’t supposed to _be_ there.

As Pixie she was careful to keep away from the Bat, Jason too. No need for the vigilantes to find out what was going on. She spent a good amount of time with her clients, occasionally thwarting some plans that she didn’t agree with. Like the time Scarecrow was going to gas a bunch of students. And the time Ivy planned to replace a bunch of people with plants.

Keeping track of _all_ the more dangerous Rogues was a bit of a hassle, so she set up her own underground spy network with the help of the street kids, along with some familiars she’d managed to summon. For her first time summoning familiars, she’d done pretty well, ending up with three helpful little spies. One was a marble fox, another a melanistic raccoon, and the last was a melanistic barn owl.

She named them Mercury, Chaos, and Nyx, respectively. They were great information gatherers, as well as infiltrators. Due to their status as familiars they were able to utilize magic, though they specialized in illusions and glamours. Very helpful. She loved them.

The network she created ended up being _extremely_ helpful. The information gathered from the street kids alone allowed her to thwart some of the Rogues with more sinister plans. In exchange for their information, Nettie set up a few safe spaces for them to hide and worked to keep them safe from traffickers. If a kid on the street worked for her they had a special pin depicting fairy wings, to signify that they were under her employ.

All the Rogues knew what the pin represented, and not many of them were willing to cross her, so the street kids were often left out of their plots. Those that didn’t work for her often ended up working for one of her clients. While it was great that she was helping people, she’d unintentionally become one of the bigger players in the underground. Luckily, she’d managed to work with the Kwami to keep people from putting two and two together.

Even when certain things were _very_ suspicious. Like the time Chaos approached her when she was out vigilante-stalking with Tim. He’d run right up to her and latched onto her leg, climbing up to make her hold him. Which had worked to sufficiently confuse Tim.

“...Is that a raccoon?”

“Yeah! He’s got melanism and likes to mess with people. I call him Chaos! Isn’t he cute?”

Tim glanced at her beloved trash panda, contemplating. “I guess so. _Why_ did you name the raccoon? And is it safe to hold him like that?”

“Well, I kept seeing him around. All he did was cause chaos, hence the name. And it’s perfectly safe! I took him to the vet and made sure he had all his shots!” She hadn't, but as Chaos was a _magical_ raccoon, she didn't need to worry about it.

“So you adopted the raccoon?”

“...Maybe.”

He sighed. “I don’t know why I’m surprised at this point.”

They stared at each other for a moment before they began laughing, Nettie offering to let Tim pet Chaos when their laughter died down. He accepted, and seemed mildly surprised when he found that Chaos was soft and well-groomed.

They stayed like that for a while, sitting on a rooftop with Chaos in Nettie’s lap, enjoying each other’s company and keeping an eye out for the vigilantes. It was nice. Tim had to leave eventually, though not before giving Nettie a warm hug and promising to text her.

They celebrated their birthdays together, as they were only ten days apart, Tim turning 11 and Nettie turning 10. She’d made him a woven red and black leather bracelet that doubled as a good luck charm, and he’d gotten her a pretty golden bat-shaped locket with a picture of the two of them in it from their time vigilante-stalking.

Nettie also celebrated her birthday as Pixie with some of the Rogues. Namely Riddler, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Scarecrow, and Two Face. In other words, her pseudo-parents and some of her best clients. It was actually pretty enjoyable. Their gift choices were... interesting, but it was the thought that counted. She’d ended up with a large mallet, a rare type of plant that glowed in the dark, a new untraceable laptop, a bulletproof umbrella, two guns, and a custom gas-mask.

She appreciated the thought, making sure to carry everything but the plant around with her in her pocket dimension. The plant she and Ivy settled into her greenhouse. She also ended up getting shooting lessons from Two Face and Harley when she reminded Two Face that while they were lovely, she didn’t know how to use them. They alternated teaching, and by the end of the summer Nettie was really good at using them, though she made sure to use rubber bullets. She wasn’t looking to kill anyone just yet. Or at all.

The guns became part of her Pixie attire, as they would be useful if anything went wrong. One was an ivory color with delicate gold detailing, and the other was gold with ivory detailing. Once she’d custom-made some holsters for them, they ended up being a constant. As did the umbrella she got from Penguin, which was also an ivory color with gold lining, rod, and details. Which prompted her to settle on her colors being gold and ivory. She bet they’d planned for it. The mallet was gold and ivory as well, same with the gas-mask. At least she would always be able to wear the locket Tim got for her.

The summer passed by pretty quickly after her and Tim’s shared birthday celebration. When you were busy practicing your marksmanship, foiling parts of certain plans, managing an unofficial spy network, doing commissions, _and_ training to become the next guardian of the miraculous, time flew by pretty quickly. Even with all that she made sure she was able to spend time with Tim and keep track of Jason.

There were a few things she had to wrap up as Pixie before she left for the school year, so she ended up organizing two separate meetings. One with her more notorious clients and one with her group of spies. The first meeting was with her spies. Most of the kids that’d agreed to help be her eyes and ears had known her on the streets, and as such, they knew Jason. Who under no circumstances could be allowed to know what was going on.

“Alright, thank you for coming,” she said as Pixie when everyone was settled into one of the warehouses she’d taken over for her spies. “As you know, I have obligations that take me out of the city for a good portion of the year. While I’m gone it’s important that nobody lets it slip to either of the vigilantes that something’s going on. Information will be gathered as usual, any pressing information can be relayed to me through one of my familiars.” She gestured at her magical companions. “They _do_ understand you, and they _can_ get in touch with me. If anybody, and I mean _anybody_ , asks about me or our little organization, report it. Don’t say anything to them, and lie low. Don’t draw any suspicion to yourselves. Am I clear?” She waited until everyone had nodded before allowing them to ask questions.

“Miss Pixie, when’s the next time we’ll see you?”

“I’m not sure. I visit sporadically throughout the year, so it could be anytime from next week to next summer.”

“Is it true that you’re magic?”

“Yes.”

She answered all their questions as straightforwardly as possible, only refusing to inform them of where she’d be going. The meeting had gone well. Her little fairies had been doing a great job so far, and with the instructions she’d lain our she had no doubt that their performance would only get better.

Next up was the meeting she’d scheduled with her clientele, though not everyone could be physically present for it. If they were they risked suspicion from Batman. That meeting was more simple than the one she’d organized for her spy network. All they needed to know was that it was time for her to head out of the city, and that she’d be checking in sporadically.

The night before she had to return to Paris she said her goodbyes to Tim, who was disappointed that she had to leave again.

“I could kidnap you if you want.” He seemed like he _really _wanted her to say yes this time.__

__She let out a soft sigh. “Tim, we’ve been over this.”_ _

__“I know...”_ _

__She pulled him into a tight hug. “I’ll miss you too. But we can still call and text.”_ _

__“It’s not the same...” he trailed off, squeezing her tighter._ _

__“I know. But I have to. And I’ll be back next summer, so we’ll _definitely_ see each other again.”_ _

__Though reluctant, Tim agreed not to kidnap her, promising to keep in touch. They spent their final night together on top of their favorite rooftop, talking through the night and parting very reluctantly when it was time for her to leave._ _

__The flight back to Paris was lonely._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you've read, two of her familiars are melanistic, which is the reasoning for my explanation before the chapter. I felt that having them be melanistic would help them blend in to their surroundings, even without the magic. There are pictures on the internet of these specific animals with melanism if you're interested in seeing the difference. Mercury is named for the Roman god of thieves and trickery, while Nyx is named for the Greek goddess of the night. Technically the name for Chaos can also stem from Greek mythology. So there's that. 
> 
> Hope you liked the chapter, the next one is in the works.
> 
> Feel free to ask for clarification or just give your thoughts on the chapter. I read all the comments and do my best to respond.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning. I'm totally going to be screwing with and/or ignoring parts of canon.

When she arrived back in Paris for the school year, she was greeted by Tom and Sabine at the airport. They seemed happy to have her back, which was nice. They’d made her some of her favorite pastries as a welcome. They were trying their best, she knew. She appreciated it.

After she’d gotten settled in she went for a walk around town, wandering in the direction of her greenhouse. She’d seen a few kids that she recognized from school, a couple of them making light conversation with her. They were all curious because they hadn’t seen her around since school let out, leading her to explain that she’d been staying with a relative in the states. All they knew was that she was from somewhere in New Jersey. Nettie hadn’t wanted them to form a bias based on her Gotham origins.

By the time she’d gotten away from her fellow students it was late enough that she had to head back for dinner. She made awkward small talk with her parents, as they asked about her summer. She only told them little tidbits of information, like that she’d spent time with a good friend and her Uncle Ed, made clothes, and did her best to keep out of any Rogue attacks. 

Mentioning her hobby- it was really more of a job but they didn’t need to know that- ended up being a good thing, as she now had permission to make clothes in her room. Nettie had politely thanked them and made a mental note to buy some new equipment. It was best for her to keep busy during her time in Paris. If she didn’t she’d end up focusing too much on what was going on in Gotham, or give in to the urge to visit Tim. Which wouldn’t be a good thing. If she disappeared too often her parents would notice eventually, and that could go multiple different ways.

Designing would keep her busy, though she would still create contingency plans in case things went south. It also allowed her to connect to her classmates a little better, though she was a bit wary due to how they always looked to her for free treats. She hoped that they wouldn’t expect free clothing, too. Especially since she might have to play along to avoid suspicion.

Nettie was able to keep under the radar, allowing Chloe to push her around so as not to draw unwanted attention to herself. All the other kids had known Chloe long enough to know not to cross her, and Nettie wasn’t about to be the first. Not yet anyway. School was uneventful, and it’d been so boring that she ended up asking Nygma to supply her with more educational material, which he was happy to do.

Most of her clients had been in and out of Arkham throughout the school year, though she noticed that they all made an effort to be out and about by the time she was due to return. Luckily all their Arkham visits had put their attempts to create a form of self-government on hold. It still weirded her out. She would have to look into the reasons for their admissions to Arkham, however. Her familiars would be happy to snitch, as would her street fairies.

She’d worry about it once she was in Gotham for the summer.

Fu had been happy with her progress in Guardian training, as had the Kwami, who seemed to like her more than him at this point. She wasn’t sure but she thought they might’ve blessed her at some point. And she was pretty sure Trixx had blessed her familiars, as if they weren’t sneaky enough. She did have the feeling that there was something Fu wasn’t telling her, and while the Kwami definitely _wanted_ to inform her, they were unable to do so. He couldn’t hide it forever, she’d find out eventually. Nettie just hoped it wouldn’t come back to bite them.

She had a feeling it was going to.

There was nothing she could do about it, however, so she elected to ignore it until it became a problem. She focused on getting things in order for her return to Gotham instead. Nettie would have many consultations to get through as Pixie, and she’d need to organize a meeting with all her little spies. Just thinking of all the trouble she’d have to deal with around her clientele was giving her a headache.

It took virtually no time for her to prepare for her trip, what with the pocket dimension and connected doors. Unfortunately she couldn’t skip the plane ride, if she did a lot of people would be suspicious, and suspicion could lead to a visit from the Bat. Even with magic helping to conceal her identity she was wary of Batman actively investigating her. The only reason he didn’t know about Pixie was due to a frankly ridiculous amount of planning, luck, and her app. Only the street kids and members of the Gotham Underground knew about Pixie, and none of them would out her willingly. A bit of magic made sure they wouldn’t be able to reveal her _unwillingly_ either.

Gods she loved magic.

She suffered through the plane ride and customs before she was able to get to her warehouse. Apparently people had started to refer to it as the Fairy Court. Those that knew about it, anyway. She crashed onto her bed and conked out for a good twelve hours, waking up the next night and deciding that the first thing she wanted to do was see Tim. Nettie wanted to surprise him, so she asked Nyx to find him and relay his location.

He ended up being on their favorite rooftop in the midst of his vigilante-watching. So she snuck up to the roof and jumped on his back with a drawn-out exclamation of his name, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. He flailed a bit before realizing what was happening, prompting her to loosen her hold enough for him to be able to turn around and reciprocate the hug.

“Nettie! I thought you weren’t due back till next week!” He didn’t mind her being early if the happiness in his voice and the enthusiasm of his hug had anything to say about it.

“Nope~ I told you the wrong day so I could surprise you!” She pulled back so she could look up at him.

He chuckled a bit. “Well consider me surprised. How was your time with the child-snatchers?”

She hit his arm for that. “Don’t be rude Tim, they didn’t know I was perfectly fine on my own. It’s admirable that they were worried about and _willing_ to take in a street kid. Especially one from Gotham.”

“I know, I know. But if they hadn’t snatched you up we’d be able to spend more time together. You know I miss you when you’re gone.”

Her features softened at the loneliness in his tone. She reached up to cup his face. “I know you do, I miss you too. I’m just glad they allow me to visit over the summers.”

He smiled down at her, leaning into her touch for a minute before drawing away. “So. Now that you’re back, what do you want to do?”

“I’m down for pretty much anything as long as it’s with you. But you have to remember the rules.”

He ticked them off on his fingers. “Nothing that would attract attention, the police, or the vigilantes. No going into the worse parts of town. We don’t talk about it in front of people after the fact. And under no circumstances do we _purposefully_ get caught up in a Rogue attack.”

“Good! You remembered! So, with the rules in mind, what did you want to do?”

“...You wanna go race go-karts around an abandoned warehouse?”

“You know it!” They shared a grin as they raced off to an abandoned warehouse they had set up _specifically_ for them to be able to race some custom go-karts in. When you had no adult supervision you had to get creative.

They goofed around in the warehouse for hours, racing and chatting and just enjoying being able to hang out in person after they’d been separated for so long. When they parted it was because they had to. Nettie had work to do and Tim’s parents were actually home for once.

Just as she got back to her warehouse she was hit with an intense feeling of foreboding. It was so strong that she had to clutch the wall to stay upright. Something was wrong. Something terrible was going to happen to someone close to her, and when she searched the feeling a bit more she was able to pinpoint who: Jason. That idiot had gotten himself into some _real_ trouble. Whatever it was, she knew she wouldn’t make it in time. All she could do was wait for the aftermath.

The sense of foreboding bore heavily on her fragile shoulders for over a week before she _finally_ learned what’d happened. Jason had been killed by the Joker. Targeted specifically because he was Robin, sold out by his own mother. Nettie was pissed. And extremely sad.

She’d been in a meeting as Pixie when she’d gotten the news. As the fact that Jason was now _dead_ registered, she’d collapsed to the floor, tears streaming down her face as she held her head in her hands. Harley had been the one to deliver the news. She’d refused all clumsy attempts at comfort, remaining there on the floor for almost a full hour before she pulled herself together and started planning. The Joker was going to pay, even if she’d leave the actual revenge to Jason. There was one thing she was certain of, one way or another Jason would come back. She could feel it.

“Mercury, Nyx, Chaos,” she whispered from her place on the floor, watching as her familiars appeared before her. “The mad jester has felled the red bird, you know what to do.” With those cryptic words, her familiars were off. While they may not make total sense to the people around her, her familiars knew what knew what to do.

They would get the fairies into hiding and find Joker, all while Pixie gathered her more loyal clients together to hunt him down. Batman may not have been able to do anything to him because of his rules and the power of his grief, but Nettie had no such reservations.

By the next night everything was in place. The Joker’s location had been found, her street fairies were hidden away, and her more dangerous clients were prepared for a confrontation. Joker would learn not to cross her.

Pixie strutted into Joker’s latest hideout, wearing black instead of her typical ivory but with her same golden accents. A black veil edged in gold concealed her face, though a faint golden glow shone through from her eyes. Magic was lightly sparking at her fingertips, red with her rage. Behind her walked Harley, Ivy, Penguin, Riddler, Scarecrow, and Zsasz. She stopped in the middle of the room, glaring up at Joker from where he stood a few feet away.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the little _Pixie_. To what do I owe the _honor_ of your presence?” The wide smile on his face and the giggles that escaped during his greeting were disturbing.

She remained stone-faced. “I’ve heard you were the one who offed the bird. Against my city-wide order.”

Joker began laughing hysterically. “Aww, was the little birdie your _friend?_ What a shame, all that’s left of him is what’s _smeared_ along the inside of some warehouse!”

“I see.” And with that, she lashed out, binding the clown in place with a quick spell, forcing him to his knees and sealing his mouth shut. “While that’s nice and all _I don’t want to hear it,”_ she all but hissed at him.

She took no note of the clown’s mild shock at how easily he’d been subdued. Pixie focused on her magic, wrapping it around the clown like a vice and piercing his skin as she began her curse. With the strength of her magic she needn’t speak any words aloud, only focus her intent on the person meant to receive the curse.

Her magic branded the curse into his very bones, making certain there was no way for him to break it. He’d screamed with the pain, but he’d receive no pity from Pixie.

“Congratulations, Joker. You’ve just received my very first curse. You will never again be able to harm any of the Batman’s brood except the bat himself. You are now subject to _my_ rules. If I give an order, you will be bound by my curse to follow it. I’d make it worse, but you _live_ off riling up the bat. That, and the one you _did_ manage to kill won’t stay dead for long. My poor brother will get his revenge, this is just a placeholder.” This didn't extend to the civilian identities of the vigilantes, unfortunately, as that would be a dead giveaway.

Joker stared up at her in visible shock, clearly realizing he’d underestimated her. She released his bonds, though the aftermath of the curse kept him in too much pain to move. As she walked away, her cohort moving forward to do their part, she paused. “Oh, and Joker,” her golden eyes gleamed as she glared at him, “You will be unable to make any mention of me to anyone unaware of my existence. That includes your precious bat.” And with that she was gone, melting into the shadows and returning to her warehouse.

The Joker was later admitted to Arkham with several severe injuries. Her clients had done their job.

A few weeks later she was _extremely_ unhappy to note that Batman had a new Robin following him around. One that looked an awful lot like Tim. Who had recently stopped stalking Batman. Why did her boys have to go into something so dangerous?

Unfortunately she knew from her late-night talks with him that Tim thought there should always be a Robin. She didn’t have the slightest clue how he’d gotten Batman to take him in besides possibly blackmail. Who was she kidding, Tim would _totally_ blackmail Batman.

This development meant they saw each other even less, but she couldn’t admit to knowing about their identities or Tim would tell the bat. And there was _no way_ she was going to tell him about her time as Pixie. How tragic. She hated the fact that their already limited time together was now even more restricted.

They still exchanged gifts for their birthdays and hung out when they could, but it wasn’t quite the same. He had to be careful when he visited her if he wanted to help her keep under the bat’s radar, which often proved difficult.

When the summer finally ended she was almost glad to go back to Paris. Nothing too crazy ever happened there after all. And with school to worry about and parents that cared for her she didn’t have the time to stress over what was happening back in Gotham.

Of course the first day of school would prove her wrong. She’d jinxed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is in the works, hope you liked this one!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! Hope you like it!

The first day of school, halfway through first period, Nettie felt it. Jason had been resurrected. The knowledge pressed on her for the remainder of the school day, until she finally managed to escape to her greenhouse to meditate. Once she was centered she began the task of finding him, utilizing various spells and artifacts to get an accurate location.

Once she had the location she made use of her laptop to do some digging. She discovered that he was in a coma in some hospital. Didn’t look like he’d come out of it for a long while, if at all. She’d have to wait for the next school break to visit and check on him.

The school year seemed to go by slowly now that she had something she really needed to check on. Nettie was finally able to slip away to see Jason once winter break started, taking Kaalki for ease of travel and Trixx for assistance with glamours. She stole into Jason’s room without any indication of her presence. He was in bad shape. The injuries he’d received before he died visible on his too-pale skin.

Lightly gripping his hand, she began to gently coax her magic into helping him heal the worst of his injuries, focusing on the brain and spine first before moving on to the less serious injuries. She hated seeing him like this. Though it wore on her she continued to pour her magic into him until she felt his fingers twitch slightly. His nose scrunched up as he fought to pry his eyes open, eventually managing and looking up at her with confusion.

“Jason,” she whispered softly, happy tears trailing down her cheeks as she rested her free hand against the side of his face. “You’re awake.”

His features scrunched up in confusion as he gazed up at her. “Nettie? What’re you doing here?” He looked around. “What am _I_ doing here? And where is here?”

“Oh, Jay." Her tone was sad as she gazed down at him with tears in her eyes. "We’re in a hospital near where you were held captive. You’ve been in a coma.”

Cold realization dawned on his face. “I was dead. Joker killed me.” Nettie tightened her grip on his hand as he sifted through his memories. “Bruce- he didn’t make it in time. God, I dug my way out of my own _grave.”_

She clutched his hand tighter and lightly stroked his cheek to help comfort him. “It-it’s ok now Jay. I’m here, and I’m gonna make sure you get better.” Her determination was clear in her voice.

“I’m sorry Nettie. You must’ve been so worried.” His tone was self-deprecating and she was having none of it.

“It wasn’t your fault. I’m just happy you’re back.” A sudden rustling outside the door let them know one of the hospital staff was coming. “I have to go. I’m not supposed to be here.” She glanced towards the door. “I’ll visit you as often as I can, don’t leave without letting me know. I can bring you somewhere safe come summer.” The knob started to turn, prompting her to place a quick kiss on his forehead before whispering a quiet “see you later Jay.”

And then she was gone, leaving Jason to stare disbelievingly at the spot where she once stood.

She kept her word, visiting Jason in secret as often as possible. If the people she knew in Paris noticed how distant she’d been they never said anything. She continued to excel in school and her training, as well as keep an eye on the situation in Gotham. Before she knew it, it was summer. She’d be helping Jason hide away before she left for the summer.

At least, that’s what she thought. A woman named Talia threw a wrench in those plans, whisking Jason off to the League of Assassins to throw him in the pits and train him to kill. There was no way she’d let him face that alone, so she effectively canceled her summer plans and tracked them down, wearing a heavy glamour and setting up a situation _just so_ , being taken in by the League after careful planning.

She breezed through the harsh training of the league like she did everything else, engineering every mission in such a way that she would never end up landing the final blow. While she was willing to train in the ways of the league, she wasn't about to kill anyone, even if she did make it seem as if she had. She’d done well enough that she’d eventually been thrown in with Jason as a test, to see if she could survive his pit madness. Even with the glamour keeping him from recognizing her, not only had she survived his madness, she’d managed to soothe him enough that his episode passed.

Nobody needed to know there was a bit of magical interference.

Her young age and her ‘taming’ of Jason led to her meeting and assisting in the training of the heir to the demon, a small 6 year-old with eyes like daggers and a permanent scowl. He was adorable. The rest of her summer was spent alternating between training with Jason and training with Damian, which she was fine with. Everyone was under the impression she was a mute, and as such tended to let things slip around her. She’d learned enough to last a lifetime.

It was very beneficial. Especially when she discovered that she was to be killed on her next mission. A convenient way to fake her death and leave. The school year was fast approaching, after all. There were only a few things to take care of before then.

Her time spent with Damian had led to her growing fond of him, and thought he would rather die than admit it, she could see that he was fond of her as well. Damian had taken to ranting at her since she was supposedly mute and couldn’t complain or tell anyone, so when he found her for his scheduled ranting time, she took the opportunity to warn him. Before he could begin his rant about how stupid people are and how _he_ should be allowed on missions too, she spoke.

“Damian.”

He froze, glaring up at her warily. “Aren’t you supposed to be mute?”

“We don’t have time for this. You’ve heard how I’m going on a mission tomorrow, right?” At his nod she continued. “Well, I’m not supposed to come back from it. The other members of the mission are under strict instructions to make sure I’m unable to return. Permanently. They won’t be able to kill me, obviously, but I’ll use the opportunity to fake my death. This is the last you’ll see of me for a long while.”

“Why would they be ordered to kill you?” His skepticism, while warranted, was not wanted.

“Probably because Jason actually listens to me. He’s gearing up to head back to Gotham soon, and they don’t want me getting in the way.” She paused for a second, glancing down at the child she’d been training with for the summer, pulling him into a quick hug before he could retaliate. “That’s all I wanted to say. I’ll take my leave now. You’re a good kid, I wish you luck in your future endeavors.” She was gone before he could protest. She'd take him with her if she thought she could get away with it. Unfortunately he was too high profile in the league for them to take his disappearance lying down. They'd see each other again, though, she'd felt it.

Now all that was left was to go on the mission and fake her death. Telling Jason would do no good, and he was unaware of her true identity. It had to remain that way for as long as possible. She’d catch him as Pixie once he got back to Gotham.

The next morning she managed to fake her death and escape to Gotham without any issue. She still had around a week before school started back up, and she’d told her parents she might be back a little late due to family issues. They didn't have any reason to doubt her claims, so they had agreed that it would be fine if she ended up returning late. They were busy with the bakery anyways.

When she arrived, she arrived to pure chaos. And not the fun kind. Honestly, she’d only been on radio silence for a few months, and everything had already gone to hell. Catching up with everything took a hot minute, from Batgirl being put out of commission due to her civilian connection with the commissioner to Tim becoming an official adopted child of Bruce Wayne after the death of his parents.

Oh, and Joker was trying to push the limits of the curse she’d set on him by having his _goons_ kidnap Robin and hurt him to his specifications. Which Nettie would _not_ stand for. Saving Tim and punishing the Joker ended up being the first thing she did as Pixie after her return from the league.

Nyx had easily located the Joker, and it had taken almost no effort for her to bust in and take everyone out. The sight of a pissed-off Pixie, magic rolling off her in waves so strong she was _floating_ was enough for Joker to know he’d messed up.

The bone-deep pain was merely a secondary indicator.

As she floated by him on her way towards Tim she casually held her hand out and used a bit of magic to break his leg. She didn’t deign to respond to any of the utter bullshit spilling from the clown's red-painted lips. Her focus was solely on Tim, who was dreadfully pale and unconscious.

She scooped him up gently, sent one last venomous glare at the Joker, and stalked off into the shadows, disappearing from the hovel Joker’d been hiding Tim in and reappearing in her warehouse. She set Tim on her bed as softly as she could before ditching her Pixie garb and tending to his wounds, speeding up the healing process with a gentle flow of magic.

She removed his mask and stroked his cheek as she waited for him to wake, concern still clear on her face. It took around ten minutes for him to come to, and when he did it was a bit violently. Nettie deftly dodged his blind punch and grabbed his hand, pulling him into a hug as he came to full awareness.

“...Nettie?” His tone was soft, hopeful, and slightly disbelieving.

“I’m here Timmy.”

He relaxed at the confirmation of her presence. “Where are we? I thought you couldn’t come this summer? Wait!” He put a hand to his face, realizing that his mask was off and he was still in his Robin costume. “Oh man, you _know.”_

“Tim, I’ve known since the first time you appeared by Batman’s side. I’m here because I wanted to see you. Finding you unconscious in one of Joker’s hideouts wasn’t how I planned our reunion.”

“Did you save me?” His tone was a bit skeptical, understandable considering he had no knowledge of her... extracurricular activities.

She settled on something close to the truth. “No, Joker pissed off the wrong person and I stumbled on the aftermath. I brought you to my warehouse so I could patch you up.” Technically true. She just neglected to mention that _she_ was the person Joker'd managed to piss off. If he was smart, he wouldn't do it again.

He glanced down at the bandages wrapped around his arms, seemingly just realizing he was wounded. “Thank you, Nettie. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” His vulnerable tone made her soften, his warm gaze even more so.

She decided to make a joke of it. They could process later. “Die, probably.” They shared a giggle before she continued. “But seriously, Timmy, you should be more careful. Especially after what happened to Jason.”

“Jason? Oh, you mean the last Robin? Yeah, I know. In my defense, the trap was well set.”

“Just be careful. And don’t tell your boss about me, ok?”

“You mean Batman? Why not?”

“I’m not looking to feed his adoption habit. Or be pulled into being a vigilante.”

He made a face at her (perfectly understandable) reasoning. “Fair. I promise I won’t tell unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“I guess that’s the best I can ask for.” She glanced at the clock, pulling out her phone and opening her app to reports that Joker had been found and put away by Batman and Nightwing, who were now scouring the area for any signs of their wayward Robin. “You should go,” she said reluctantly, “Batman’s out looking for you with Nightwing.”

He winced. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

He pulled her into one last hug before he left out one of the large warehouse windows, and as soon as he was clear of the perimeter he was unable to remember the exact location of the warehouse.

Nettie sighed as she gazed longingly after him. If only he could’ve stayed longer. She’d missed him during her time with the league. She forcibly turned her attention towards the Rogues and their exploits over the time she’d been gone, finding that they’d been in and out of Arkham and had made a bit of progress on their government. While the progress on their government was a bit disturbing, they seemed to have kept to her rules, which was good.

She had a lot of reports from her street fairies to look over, and she was grateful for the information. Her familiars had been especially helpful during her extended absence. She sent out a message that she was pleased with their performance, and sent out a notice to those of the underworld loyal to her that they should expect a new player in town soon. There was a note that went with the notice informing them it was in their best interest to let her know when he arrived as soon as possible.

Without her there to stop him Jason would burn them alive _and_ ruin their system. She'd hate to have to rebuild.

The last few days she had free before the break ended were spent straightening some things out and meeting up with Tim whenever possible. He was healing well, but she was still concerned for him. On the plus side he would approach her as Robin now. Every little bit of time counted.

She didn’t want to go back to Paris. In Paris she’d be expected to be a normal child who did normal things when she was really anything but. And she kept getting the feeling that what Fu refused to tell her was going to come back to bite them soon after school started up.

She was, once again, proven right on the first day of school. Nettie cursed Master Fu mentally as she took stock of the situation.

 _I hate being right sometimes,_ she thought as she stared down StoneHeart as Ladybug. _Why couldn’t I have been wrong just this once?_

She let out a long sigh as she took in her new partner, giving him a nod of acknowledgment before running after the akuma she was tasked with defeating.

She had work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you have shown a _lot_ of enthusiasm for updates, so I feel it's only fair to let you know that I _do_ have some semblance of an upload schedule. I upload once a day between midnight and 1:00 am EST. I had a very similar upload schedule for my fic _The Contingency_ once I got into the swing of things. I write chapter by chapter, typically only beginning the next one a little bit before or after the current one is posted, and occasionally starting once the next one up is in the editing phase.
> 
> So there's that. Hope you liked the chapter, next one is in the works and should be up tomorrow!
> 
> Feel free to leave comments! I love hearing your thoughts about each chapter and do my best to respond to those that _do_ comment! And I'm happy to answer questions as long as they don't involve spoilers!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

She didn’t know what Fu had been thinking.

Two practical children sent off to fight magical monsters in magical bodysuits. With basically no adult supervision and only one of them with real combat training. What a great idea. She had no clue how Fu had even picked Chat, as he seemed like he was completely isolated from the real world. Which she found out later was actually the case upon discovering that he was her new classmate, Adrien Agreste. 

If she wasn’t magical and couldn’t sense him she never would’ve guessed Adrien was Chat. She was the youngest person in the class, having skipped a grade, but when Adrien went out as Chat his carefree attitude made her feel _ancient._

At least there were lots of reasons to cancel school.

But fighting weird-looking monsters on a madman’s whim got old pretty quickly. Especially when civilians would loiter about and get in the way, the police preferred to let her handle it, and the mayor had found a way to keep all information about the Hawkmoth Situation from leaving Paris. They couldn’t even get a line through to the Justice League. Mayor Bourgeois had been more thorough than she would’ve anticipated. He’d even begun a campaign aimed specifically at convincing tourists that the akumas were a new tourist attraction.

She couldn’t even get a solid lead on the guy because of how random everything was. He’d rarely show up in person and had no rhyme or reason to his victims. The only thing he looked for was a strong negative emotion. He didn’t pay attention to _which_ emotion, often resulting in terrible akumas and emotional damage.

With how often everyone kept dying, watching people die, and occasionally being used as a proxy to kill people it was a wonder Paris wasn’t permanently in flames. By the time he was caught and locked away most of Paris will probably have a therapist on speed dial.

To top it all off there was another new student besides Adrien, a girl named Alya who had basically forced herself into the nonexistent title of 'Marinette’s Best Friend'. And she kept pressuring her to go against Chloe and ask out Adrien. She didn’t even like Adrien that way. The most annoying thing about her had to be her insistence on getting up close and personal to akuma attacks.

It was like she had a death wish.

Despite her overwhelming personality Nettie began to consider her a friend. She was kinda nice to hang out with when she wasn't rushing Nettie off to confess to someone she didn’t have feelings for. At least it gave her a reason to push back against Chloe.

If it weren’t for her semi-regular visits to Gotham she probably would’ve gone insane or been akumatized from all the drama that her class generated. That and the insanity that was working with Char Noir. He seemed to be developing an unhealthy crush on her. Hopefully it wouldn’t get out of hand.

A month into her new life of crazy Jason finally made his way to Gotham. Under the name Red Hood. She was glad for the excuse to get away for a while, immediately traveling back to Gotham via her greenhouse when she received the news. The report had been submitted by one of her street fairies, as Hood had apparently noticed all the fairy pins and gotten suspicious, attempting to find the source so he could help out the street kids he was once part of.

He couldn’t know that she was Nettie, so she lured him into an abandoned building she often used to meet potential allies as Pixie, sealing off all the exits once he was inside. He pulled his guns when he noticed he’d been cut off from exit, but as he couldn’t see her he had to resort to words.

“What do you want?”

“Depends on what you’re willing to give.” Her voice bounced around the room, giving no clear indication as to her location.

“The fuck’s that supposed to mean?” He was wary, guns held steady in preparation to shoot at the first opportunity.

“It means, Jason,” he tensed up at his name, “that this can go a few ways. I can help you get established as a substantial player in the underground, if you would ally with me. Or... I could clue in the Bat.”

He tensed up even more at the implication she knew he was a Robin. “Who the _fuck_ are you?”

“Pixie,” she stated simply as she emerged from the shadows, decked out in her usual gold and ivory, guns in their holsters and Mercury circling her feet. “You wouldn’t have heard of me during your tenure as Robin, information about me is strictly limited to those of the underworld. Like those street kids you were questioning. They work for me and reported in when you started asking questions.”

The sight of her seemed to shock him, whether it be due to her small stature or her young age. He kept his guns ready, though he flicked the safety on. “Hold up. Who _are_ you. What’s your role in Gotham’s Underworld? You can’t be more than 13.” She was actually 12, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Details, details.” She waved her hand in dismissal of his concerns. “Officially, I have no role. _Unofficially,_ I’m one of the biggest players. But unlike the others I don’t cause trouble. My time is better spent monitoring the rest, as well as doing my job as the lead designer for many of the Rogues. It’s best not to cross me, as Joker and Scarecrow can tell you from experience.”

The glint in her eye unsettled him enough for him to believe her. He put his guns away and shifted his stance. “What do you want?”

“Nothing much. I know you probably have plans to off the new Robin, which I would advise against. He’s quite close with your sister, I believe." The mention of her caused him to stiffen up. He was ever-so-protective. "He also recently had his own less-than-pleasant run in with Joker. Go easy on him." She didn't continue until Jason gave her a reluctant nod of agreement. "The only other thing I ask is that you limit collateral damage, and try to keep the killing to a minimum. I can help you with your bloodlust but I don’t want to have to deal with increased presence on this side of town. I’m off the bat’s radar and I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Sounds simple enough. What do I get in return?”

“You become one of my clients. I’ll design and make clothes for you, as well as help set you up with better gear. As long as you don’t cross me my people won’t mess with you, and I’ll allow my street fairies to answer your questions. Do we have a deal?” She extended her hand towards him, waiting for his confirmation.

He contemplated for a minute, but he made the right choice. He took her hand. “Deal.”

She grinned, leaving her card in his hand as she pulled away. “Well, it’s been fun but I’ve gotta jet.” Before he could respond she had disappeared, the exits once again becoming accessible with her departure.

“...I don’t know shit about this place anymore,” Jason muttered to himself, receiving a faint laugh as a response.

Nettie kept her word, helping Red Hood establish himself as a player before he went after the bat, and making sure he kept from going back on his promise of not killing Robin. He’d ended up scaring Tim instead. Nettie could live with that.

When she was sure things weren’t going to crash and burn she allowed more of her focus to fall on the akumas she was forced to fight. She was always professional with Chat and the victims, though Chat was starting to become convinced that they were meant to be. She didn’t know how to feel about that.

She didn’t know the extent of his obsession until another new girl arrived a couple months into the school year. Lila Rossi. Nettie pegged her as a liar before she even opened her mouth for the first time. She seemed particularly interested in Adrien, which led to Nettie discovering the book he’d taken from his father. After seeing the book she followed them for a chance at grabbing it.

She was granted the perfect opportunity when Lila tossed it in the trash. Once it was in her possession she’d transformed into Ladybug and shoved it in her yo-yo, intent on bringing it back to Master Fu. Only, as she swung past them Adrien called out to her, and she reluctantly stopped to see what he wanted.

“How can I help you M. Agreste?”

He stared at her dreamily, only answering when she let out a soft cough in discomfort. “Oh! My classmate Lila told me that you’re good friends with her. Is that true?” He was practically vibrating with excitement as he leaned towards her, prompting her to lean back.

She glanced over at a pale Lila. “My apologies, I don’t recall ever meeting anyone named Lila before.” She focused her stare on Lila. “I ask that you don’t spread this rumor any further than you already have. It could be dangerous for both of us.” Lila’s face was red with embarrassed anger as Ladybug bid them a good day before swinging off to visit Fu.

Fu was surprised at the discovery, and happy about it. He wanted to take pictures and translate the whole thing, but Nettie convinced him to just let her make a copy of the book that couldn’t be decrypted and send that back while they kept the _real_ book. Making the copy was simple, and slipping the fake into Adrien’s bag even easier.

What wasn’t as easy was dealing with an akuma pretending to be a hero because you unintentionally exposed her in front of a boy she was trying to impress. And keeping a straight face as she glanced around Adrien’s room only to see a _ton_ of Ladybug memorabilia was even harder. Apparently she’d underestimated his obsession with her.

They eventually finished dealing with Lila, though the girl seemed to be determined to hold a grudge against Ladybug because she had answered Adrien’s question truthfully. Not a very pleasant person. She was glad when Lila had to “travel with her diplomat mother to help people.” Dealing with her was a whole ‘nother kind of headache.

She had enough to worry about.

Like the fact that Gabriel Agreste was now her top suspect. He fit the bill, honestly. Shut-in, controlling father whose wife had gone mysteriously missing after a bout with an unknown illness. Who just so happened to have a book of the miraculous. Yeah, he was definitely suspect #1. No matter what Chat tried to say in his defense.

She wanted to infiltrate his house with Mullo and Trixx to investigate further, but Fu was adamant that they needed solid evidence before they did anything like that. Even though doing it would give them _great_ evidence. He was lucky she tended to humor him. If things ever came to a head the Kwami would definitely choose her over him, and he didn’t seem to realize that yet.

The craziness of Paris made her miss the more predictable and debatably more normal craziness of her Rogues. She didn’t care what Fu said, she was going back to Gotham for the summer. Tom and Sabine were happy to let her go based on the premise that she’d get to escape the constant danger of akuma attacks.

The school year had seemed to drag on _especially_ long due to all the attacks, school cancellations, and plots Alya dragged her into to confess her nonexistent feelings for Adrien. She took every opportunity to escape to Gotham. At least she was actually _used_ to Gotham’s brand of crazy.

When she was finally on a flight to Gotham she let herself relax. She’d still have to return to Paris for the akuma attacks, which she’d be alerted about via the Paris-exclusive _Akuma Alert_ app. She did wonder whether Jason would seek her out. He was aware that she spent her summers in Gotham, after all.

Nettie had made sure to follow his exploits as Red Hood, occasionally meeting with him in person as Pixie. Once she’d helped set him up in the underworld he’d asked a lot of questions about Pixie. She wondered if he was happy with the answers he’d received. Probably not. Not much was known about her aside from her code-name, the fact that she was one of the biggest players, and that she'd managed to completely elude the notice of the vigilantes.

His attempts at gathering info about her as Nettie weren’t very fruitful either. Her identity was known to exactly three of the Rogues, the street kids wouldn’t say anything out of loyalty, and she rarely went out during the day. The only person she really spent time with as Nettie was Tim, and as Jason had yet to make up with Bruce there was little chance for him to interrogate him.

This, of course, meant that there was now a _reason_ for Jason to attempt to reform. So, as is typical, less than a week after she arrived back in Gotham, Pixie got a front row seat to Jason beating up Batman and the Joker, surprisingly _not_ killing either of them, and forming a sort of truce with Bruce. What even was her life at this point? Bruce even invited Jason back to the manor after he let slip to Tim that Red Hood was actually Jason Todd, who Tim recognized as Nettie's brother. Tim and Alfred pushed the big bad bat into inviting Jason to stay in the manor and offering assistance with managing his bloodlust.

What was even more surprising was that Jason _actually agreed._ He was still bound by the rules of the underworld and kept up his turf, but now he was partnered with the vigilantes again. She’d expected it to happen eventually, but not quite so soon. Information about her must have been a powerful motivator.

The first time she met up with Tim after Jason rejoined the batfam proved this.

“So, I’m guessing you know about Red Hood, who he is and how he recently joined up with the bats...”

“I’m aware. Has he interrogated you yet?” Tim let out a long groan and dropped his head onto the table between them. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said while gently petting his head. “What did he want to know?”

Tim lifted his head up so he could look at her, chin still resting on the table. “First he wanted to know if you were coming back, then he wanted to know if you know, _then_ he wanted to know how we knew each other, and now he just keeps asking about your well-being. I told him you were already here, that you didn’t know, you know, like a liar, that we met when I was vigilante-watching, and that you’re doing fine. Honestly dealing with all his questions is exhausting. I’m just glad he never asks around Bruce, Alfred, Dick, or Babs because he doesn’t want Bruce to know and adopt you.”

“Aww, you poor birdie. Just give him my number, save yourself the trouble.”

“I guess you’re right. But when aren’t you?”

“Almost never Timmy. Almost never.”

It was kinda like a curse. But who could tell for real? The rest of the summer was spent as normal, though Jason seemed to be avoiding her and had refused Tim's offer of her number. Tim had invited him to her and Tim’s joint birthday celebration, but he hadn’t gone. He was probably afraid she’d chew him out for disappearing from that hospital in the middle of nowhere.

He wasn’t wrong. Even if she _did_ infiltrate the League of Assassins and knew _exactly_ what he’d been up to. _He_ certainly didn’t know about her successful infiltration, and she aimed to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Other than that, not too much happened in Gotham. She’d hindered the Rogues and their attempts to make progress on their government, and made sure they stayed in line, but she had to go back to Paris frequently to deal with akumas. Which meant she didn’t get to spend as much time in Gotham as she would’ve liked.

 _Oh well,_ she thought as she began preparing for the school year. _At least I got to spend some time with Tim. And Jason, though only as Pixie._ Nettie could only hope Hawkmoth would finally start to chill out. If she had to fight _one more_ akuma any later than one am, she’d raid his home and stab him. Fu be damned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is in the works!


	7. Chapter 7

At this point Nettie didn’t know why she bothered to get her hopes up. Not only had Hawkmoth _not_ taken a chill pill, he’d roped someone into using a _broken miraculous_. Now she had to deal with akumas and sentimonsters at the same time! Plus Chat was slowly decreasing in his efficiency, which meant she was doing a majority of the work.

And to top it off, Lila had returned from her fake trip and had the gall to attempt to _threaten_ her in the bathroom. It didn’t work out too well for her; Nettie bit back and Lila ended up scurrying away with her tail between her legs. What a coward.

Unfortunately the fear Nettie had induced in Lila gave her a bit of credibility when she claimed that she’d been threatened in the bathroom. Good thing Nettie had never been very emotionally invested in the class. Only downside was that it might attract her parents’ attention, which was a no-go.

She ended up forcing Lila into a deal/truce to make sure she wouldn’t cause trouble for her. It was in Lila’s best interest to play along. So she did, however reluctantly.

Nettie wasn’t about to hold the class’s hand when it came to investigating unrealistic claims. If they believed Lila she felt it was their own fault. She’d spoken out once or twice before proposing the arrangement, and a couple people had been curious enough to look into it on her word. Those that took her advice and learned the truth only humored Lila, never upsetting the balance of the class by exposing her outright. They, too, felt that they shouldn’t have to say it for the rest of the class to catch on. If they believed it, it was due to their own stupidity.

As Ladybug she’d asked Chat Noir to back off and remain professional, but he remained childish and firm in his belief that they were meant to be together. Master Fu wasn’t concerned about it, and so Nettie had to settle for limiting her contact with Chat as Ladybug. Which was difficult when her classmates either became or caused an akuma almost every other day.

In addition to having to deal with him for attacks, after he’d saved her as Marinette he’d begun visiting her randomly. He could show up on her balcony at any moment, no matter the time of day, and had taken to calling her Princess and Mari without asking her if it was okay first. It was _extremely_ annoying.

The only positive to him talking with her as a civilian was that he cleaned up his act as Chat a bit. Which was definitely helpful during the Scarlet Moth thing that happened. Fighting against a bunch of people who’d been given a miraculous, however temporarily, while good practice, was _not_ fun.

By the time summer finally rolled around she was ready to go to Gotham and just stay there. Of course, every time she managed to visit she’d somehow missed all the drama the batfamily attracted. Upon arriving in Gotham the legal way, she was met with the news that there were not one, but _two_ new additions to the batclan. Spoiler and Black Bat. Only one of which was officially added to Bruce Wayne’s collection of troubled children.

She didn’t want to know.

Pixie had business as soon as she was officially in for the season, which was a great way to ignore the bats and their extended family. Commissions to do, people to scare, Rogues to keep in line. The usual. She was glad to get away from her parents and classmates. Especially Adrien, who had been particularly bummed that she was still leaving for the summer. All the more reason to leave if you asked her.

Jason still avoided her when she went out as Nettie, but he seemed to enjoy spending time with her when she was Pixie. Told her that she reminded him of his little sister, completely unaware that she _was_ his little sister. He’d get a good laugh out of that when he found out the truth. After he stopped freaking out about how his baby sister basically ruled Gotham's Underworld.

Nettie had made sure to block his investigations into her identity, and his connection to the bats ensured that he wouldn’t be granted the _Pixie_ app, though he knew of its existence. The magic she’d settled over herself would keep him from being able to pull other bats into the investigation, as he couldn’t make any mention of her to anyone that didn’t already know.

His continued digging was a bit frustrating, however. So one day, she set a meeting with him in a building near her warehouse, intent on getting him to drop it.

She was already present and waiting once he arrived.

“Hello, Hood.”

“Pixie.” He came to a stop in front of her.

“I called you here because I need you to stop looking into my identity. If you keep going you’re going to get hit with some magical backlash, and we don’t want that.”

He crossed his arms in a display of stubbornness as he gazed at her. “I can handle a bit of backlash.”

“Just because you _can_ doesn’t mean you _should_. In exchange I’m willing to cleanse you of the Lazarus Pit’s destructive magic.”

That stopped him in his tracks. “...What? How do you even know about that!?” He uncrossed his arms and reached for his guns subconsciously.

“I know a lot of things, Jason. My sources are my own. My offer isn’t empty, as I’m sure you’ve heard I am very knowledgeable when it comes to magic, and the Lazarus are a form of magic. I can remove the destructive energy that’s corrupted you. All I ask in exchange is that you halt your investigation into my identity. Do we have a deal?”

“If it really works, you got yourself a deal.”

“Perfect.” She shook his hand before dragging him through the shadows and into her warehouse, sitting him down in the middle of a chalk circle she’d drawn in preparation of the spell. He seemed skeptical, though he complied. It only took Pixie about five minutes to complete the spell and channel the destructive energy out of Jason and safely purify it using the Ladybug’s powers.

For Jason the process was completely painless, though he seemed a bit disturbed at being able to physically _see_ the magic swirling around him in vibrant colors as she performed the necessary spell. The display was enough to convince him she’d kept her end of the bargain. The newfound feeling of lightness only solidified it.

Pixie glanced at him before straightening up and calming her magic. “I trust you’ll uphold your end of the bargain.” At Jason’s nod, his expression still showing his lingering shock, she walked up to him, grabbed his arm, and transported them back to the building they’d started in before leaving him there and going home to rest.

A few days later she met up with Tim in a café. He seemed excited to see her, tired as he was. The first thing he did when he saw her was pull her into a warm hug, burying his face into her shoulder and muttering about how unfair it was that he only got to see her for a few months every year.

She laughed, gently patting his back as she reciprocated the hug. “It’s good to see you too, Tim. I’ve missed you.”

“Why must you leave me here without you? You should just let me kidnap you. Or help you go missing. I can totally hook you up with a new identity.”

So could most of the people she worked with, not that he needed to know that. She pulled away, humming in false consideration as she tapped a finger against her chin as she pretended to think about it. “I don’t know about that, Timmy. I wouldn’t want to become adopted by that serial-adopter you call a dad.”

They shared a laugh; they both knew it was true. “Fiiine. I _guess_ that’s reason enough not to kidnap you. Plus Jason would probably kill me for it.”

“You’re definitely right about _that_. Kidnapping aside, what’s new with you? Besides the two new additions to your clan, obviously.”

“Oh, you mean Steph and Cass? Yeah, their additions were pretty crazy, but things happen. Things have been pretty chill, though they normally calm down around the time you’re due back. Which is weird because a ton of the bigger Rogues are loose. That and...” he hesitated, which clued her in that there was something he didn’t think she would like. “Steph asked me out!” He blurted before slapping a hand over his mouth, cheeks growing red.

“Oh,” she paused to process that. Not what she’d been expecting. “Did you say yes?”

He looked guilty for some reason. “Yeah... she asked me so suddenly that my gut reaction was just to agree. We went out on a couple dates but things were so awkward that we called it quits.”

“That’s... sad? I honestly don’t know what to say in this situation Tim. I got nothing.”

“I just figured you should know.”

“Oh, Timmy." She sighed as she reached across the table to pat his hand. "You never have to tell me anything if it makes you feel uncomfortable. I’m just glad that we get to spend time together.”

He relaxed. “You are correct, as always.”

After Tim's blurted confession, things were more comfortable. They continued to chat for a while, though Tim had to leave for a family thing after a few hours. Which translated to he had to go get ready for patrol.

She shook her head fondly as she left the café, walking back towards her warehouse for the day before stopping in her tracks when Nyx swooped down to land on her shoulder with a note. It was from one of her fairies. Apparently there was some new guy in town sniffing around the street kids, and by the looks of things he was with some human traffickers.

And here she’d thought they would’ve learned after she kicked them out the last time. The traffickers were easily taken care of, and there were no significant problems for the rest of the summer. She continued to meet up with Tim, and they once again celebrated their birthdays together. The Rogues also celebrated her birthday, and had apparently made it some sort of underworld holiday. She really needed to either crush or support their efforts of making a government. Them trying to do it on their own was weirding her out.

There had been fewer akumas that summer, which she was happy about. Those that did pop up were either really strong or really weak, and the inconsistency was not appreciated. Honestly, if he was going to bother being a super villain, the least Gabriel could do was be consistent about it.

The summer and been strangely calm, both in Gotham and in Paris. There were certain things that had attributed to the calm. Like how Red Hood was killing less now that she’d cleansed him of the Pit's destructive energy, and how Mayura had been mainly inactive due to the toll of using a broken miraculous. While they were reasonable explanations, Nettie still had a gut feeling that _something_ was going to go wrong during her time in Paris. 

Her instincts told her it would have to do with Master Fu. Whether something would happen to him or the Kwami would stage a coup she didn’t know, but by the next summer he would no longer be the Guardian.

Her instincts had never steered her wrong, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is in the works!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're ready for some badass Nettie, cause that's what you're getting.

She hated being right sometimes. The Miracle Queen Incident was a _disaster_. Nettie had lost _every_ temporary hero on the roster _and_ Master Fu in one fell swoop. How Hawkmoth had even found him she had no idea. And Chat had just been starting to shape up as well.

At least her deal with Lila was holding up.

And she’d been getting some more high-profile, above-board clients due to her work with Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale. She’d had to make a new alias for it, though. No need for her to draw unnecessary attention to herself.

With Lila in the picture she had plenty of time to work on her commissions, what with Alya being enthralled by her and hanging out with Nettie less and less. She certainly didn’t miss the crazy plans Alya would come up with to try and get her to confess her nonexistent love for Adrien. Who also had to spend less time with her on account of Lila dragging him around and his father wanting him to keep her happy.

Lila was still bitter about being forced into a truce, however, which was evident with the akuma she would cause that were aimed at Nettie specifically. This time there were two akumas after her. One that wanted to protect her and one that wanted to hurt her. With the way one of them always had her in sight she couldn’t get away to transform, even with Chat showing up to help. The one that was against her had managed to injure her pretty severely, slicing her left side open and tossing her around, resulting in lots of little cuts and bruises. The one that wanted to protect her hadn’t been happy about it, and apparently could make portals as he’d gently shoved her through one as he went after the other akuma.

The portal had let out on the streets of Gotham, ironically. Near her warehouse, actually. The akumas had appeared early in the morning in Paris, so it was still dark out in Gotham. Dark enough for vigilantes to be about. And she could barely move with the giant gash in her side. She’d need help.

She was just about to call for her familiars when she sensed someone nearby. Nettie carefully pulled herself up so she was leaning against a wall and waited, watching to see who it was. She didn’t have long to wait, as Nightwing dropped down in front of her a few seconds later. He opened his mouth to speak and promptly snapped it shut at the sight of her injuries. He hurried to put pressure on her wound as he took stock of all her visible injuries.

She weakly tried to push him away as Chaos came into view, climbing onto her shoulders to hiss at Nightwing, who stepped back in shock at the appearance of the abnormal raccoon.

“I-I’m sorry, Nightwing. Chaos is a bit protective. I’ll be fine, you can go.” She leaned back against the brick of the building as she weakly waved him away, Chaos balancing on her shoulder and glaring at the vigilante, keeping him from getting any closer to her.

He took a step toward her, arms raised in a non-threatening gesture. “Miss, those injuries look pretty severe. Please allow me to escort you to a hospital at least.” He glanced at the puddle of blood at her feet pointedly.

A portal opened up next to her and she was dragged through before she could respond, Chaos quickly jumping down so he could remain in Gotham. She wouldn’t know it, but right after the portal closed Robin landed next to Nightwing, who had called in for help dealing with an injured civilian. Chaos recognized Tim, of course, as Tim likewise recognized Chaos. He would definitely be questioning her when she was back in Gotham for the summer.

Of course, Nettie had no idea this was happening, as she was busy fighting two akumas after _finally_ managing to get away and transform, all while dealing with heavy blood loss. She won, thankfully, as Chat had been helpful and determined due to his worry for her as Marinette. The cure took care of her injuries and blood loss, while also getting rid of the blood she’d left behind in Gotham.

That was going to confuse the vigilantes.

She’d worry about it later. Dealing with Lila was more important. That liar would learn to leave her alone one way or another.

Finding her was easy, isolating her even more so. She’d dragged Lila into an alley and clamped a hand over her mouth before she could protest.

“Well well well, look who we have here. It’s so nice to see you again Lila, especially after our beloved heroes saved me from two akumas that were after _me specifically_ for conflicting reasons. It’s almost like someone _caused_ those akumas _on purpose.”_ Her eyes were cold and imposing as she loomed over an increasingly frightened Lila. “But it couldn’t have been you, could it? After all, we have a deal, and the consequences for reneging on that deal are too steep for you to afford, isn’t that right?” Lila nodded hesitantly, shrinking in on herself in the face of Nettie’s cold anger.

“That’s what I thought. Keep it up and you can only blame yourself for the consequences. I will not warn you again. Next time something like this happens I’ll tip off the heroes to your little deal with Hawkmoth, _on top of_ the consequences for crossing me. Got it?”

Lila nodded her head frantically, letting out a muffled “Yes!” as Nettie removed her hand from her mouth.

Nettie lost the cold demeanor and gained a sunshine-bright smile. “Good! I’m sure this conversation won’t need a repeat!” With that she turned and left, Lila falling to her knees behind her as she stared after her in fright.

There was a reason none of the Rogues would dare to cross her. Push the boundaries a bit? Sure. But after what happened with Joker and the others who’d scoffed at her word and gone against her, not many were willing to break her rules anymore. After this rather one-sided conversation, she had no doubt Lila would be more unwilling to cross her as well. Which was good because, true to her word, Nettie wouldn’t give her a second warning.

She’d gone to her greenhouse after leaving Lila alone in that alley. She wanted to be alone, or as alone as one could get when they had a bunch of miniature gods following them around. There were some things she needed to think about, mainly who she could trust to be a new temporary hero.

Chat had been pushing her to let Marinette have the mouse miraculous full time after Kwami Buster, oblivious to the fact that she _was_ Marinette, and thus couldn’t do that. Only problem was that there was nobody around that she trusted enough to use a miraculous and all the previous temps had been exposed. But Chat’s insistence on giving out the mouse gave her an idea. She could be her own temp hero.

With Trixx’s illusions she could definitely make it work, and since she had trained with all the miraculous she wouldn’t need to be micromanaged during akuma attacks. It was perfect. She’d just have to convince Chat that Marinette couldn’t be given the miraculous because she was too busy for it.

He’d understand. Maybe.

Okay, so maybe she overestimated him a bit. He hadn’t taken that answer very well. Eventually she’d had to tell him that she’d asked Marinette and had been told that, while she’d be happy to help on occasion, she was too busy with her commissions to be a full-time hero. He’d begrudgingly accepted that, thankfully.

He’d become even worse since Master Fu passed on guardianship of the box to her, as he didn’t believe that she’d do anything about it. He was kinda right. She wouldn’t do anything until she snatched the missing miraculous from his father.

With Fu gone there was nobody to stop her from infiltrating the Agreste‘s home. So after a bit of surveillance to satisfy Tikki, that’s exactly what she did. She busted into the house through the audacious butterfly window that somehow _no one_ had noticed right after a joint akuma and sentimonster attack.

Gabriel and Nathalie were both still transformed, completely unprepared for a smirking Ladybug and her two “new” holders, Teumessian and Ryū, the fox and the dragon, to come crashing through the window. Nathalie was easily subdued, weak from her use of the peacock, but Gabriel put up quite a fight.

He’d managed to slice a deep gash in her side almost exactly where she’d been hit during the incident with the two akumas Lila caused that were after her for conflicting purposes. Even after managing to wound her, however, Gabriel was still at a distinct disadvantage. He was facing one highly trained miraculous user split into three bodies.

It was a given that she would win. Ryū had used her dual daggers to slice an x into his chest right where the butterfly miraculous sat, removing the brooch and handing it off to Ladybug in the process. One good punch to the face later Gabriel was tied up in the middle of his butterfly room, her yo-yo used to restrain him as she went to heal his wife, still slowly bleeding out from the gash in her left side.

Once Emilie was healed enough that a hospital could take over Nettie called for the police and an ambulance, using the time it took for them to get there to bestow a curse upon Gabriel for his misuse of the miraculous. As she’d done with the Joker, the curse was settled into his bones, and the process was excruciating.

“The pain you just felt was a curse settling in. You’ll never again be able to wield a miraculous, make any mention of the miraculous, or have others use the miraculous for your own gain. Your wife is now stable enough to be rehabilitated in a hospital. I hope you’re satisfied.” She led them all outside where the police were waiting with an ambulance, handing off the villains and sending the police a copy of the footage from the fight. She would make an announcement later that she had found and defeated Hawkmoth and would consequently be retiring herself and Chat Noir.

Before she could do that she had to rush back to her greenhouse to merge herself together and detransform, then she had to focus on healing her wounds. Nettie started with the long, deep gash along her left side, feeding magic into it to stop the bleeding before stitching it up and wrapping it with bandages. The small bruises and cuts she was able to heal completely, but the wound in her side would take some time. Due to the wound being caused by a miraculous holder with intent to harm, it would leave a scar.

Once she was finished she slumped back against the willow tree and let out a long sigh of relief, all the Kwami gathering around her as they celebrated her victory. The butterfly and newly-fixed peacock were back in the box where they belonged, and Hawkmoth was in police custody.

“We did it guys! Now all we have to worry about are the Rouges and stupid teenage drama! No more akumas!” The Kwami let out a collective cheer at this. “And we have Nooroo and Duusu back!” She smiled gently at the two Kwami, the rest of the Kwami gathering around them for a group hug.

When their hug ended, Nooroo looked up at her with big eyes and thanked her, along with Duusu. She was sure they would recover from their mistreatment with the help of the other Kwami and the healing aura present in the greenhouse. They deserved a break after what they’d been through during their time away from the box.

Only one Kwami was missing, Plagg, but she’d have him back by the end of the day. And she did, all she had to do was approach Adrien after he finished fencing practice and use the sleight-of-hand she’d learned on the streets of Gotham to snag the ring. He didn’t even know what happened until she went on the news that night to tell the public that Hawkmoth had been caught, and with their job done she and Chat Noir would be retiring.

She took no questions and gave no further answers before she disappeared. Her only other appearances as Ladybug happening during the trial, as she was called in to testify against Gabriel. The trial lasted almost a month, resulting in Gabriel being sentenced to many years in prison with a _lot_ of community service during and afterward. Due to how everything always ended up fixed they couldn’t get him for anything more than terrorism and emotional trauma, though she wished the punishment were steeper.

Adrien had been exonerated, though people were still a bit wary of him. Amelie Graham de Vanily and her son Felix were in town to assist in Emilie’s recovery and help her in watching over Adrien, who was now no longer forced to do so many extracurricular activities, but _was_ forced back into homeschooling for the time being to avoid any attacks from people unhappy with the sentencing.

This suited Nettie just fine. She didn’t have to worry about dealing with him much anymore, as Chat _or_ as Adrien, which was a relief.

School was hectic those last months before summer break, though Lila had managed to smooth things over after being implicated in the trial. She’d managed to get off without any charges due to her claims of fearing for her safety if she didn’t do as he asked. Bummer. But Lila was still sticking to their deal due to her fear of Nettie, so there was that at least.

Summer was just around the corner and she couldn’t wait to go home, back to Gotham. The only thing she didn’t want to do was explain the Hawkmoth Situation, but she knew she would have to. According to reports from her fairies, Nightwing hadn’t been the only one to see her bleeding out on the street. Ivy had seen through one of her plants, and word about Pixie traveled _extremely_ fast through the underworld. She was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up being more loaded than I anticipated when I began writing it. I think it turned out decently though.
> 
> If you’re curious about what the fox and dragon look like, they’re the same as I described in _The Contingency_. Fox described in chapter 4, dragon in chapter 7.
> 
> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is, as always, in the works!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this isn't as chaotic as I expected it to be, but there _is_ more dialogue than there has been in previous chapters.

Nettie arrived in Gotham with little fanfare, but she knew that she would need to be proactive so she wasn’t kidnapped and interrogated by a group of worried Rogues. With this in mind, the first thing she did upon arriving at her warehouse was schedule a meeting with Ivy, Harley, Riddler, Penguin, Two Face, and Scarecrow. They were the ones she spent the most time with during the summer in Gotham, and were some of her most loyal clientele. They would make sure to help set the record straight.

She could _sense_ the turmoil as those of Gotham’s Underworld waited for news of Pixie’s health. Some because they were worried and some because they wanted to take advantage of the situation if she _was_ in less-than-perfect condition. Either way, she was strong enough to crush the opposition.

The meeting was scheduled for the next night, so she spent the remainder of the day preparing for it. Her wound had healed nicely, though it had left behind a jagged scar. All she could do was conceal it with a glamour in the hopes of fooling the general population of the underworld. Not that her side was normally visible, but she tried to always be prepared just in case.

The meeting was held in the building that the Rogues had designated to be their courthouse, and Nettie, as Pixie, was the first to arrive. It was obvious which seat was hers. It was the only chair that resembled a throne and was done in gold and ivory, which had become her colors after the very people she was meeting had color-coordinated their gifts for her tenth birthday. For a bunch of high-profile criminals, subtlety where she was concerned was basically nonexistent.

Looks like the type of government they were trying to build would have a monarch. Only they’d neglected to inform her that _she_ was to be the monarch.

She pushed the thought to the side as she sat in her seat, she refused to acknowledge it as a throne, and waited for the others. It didn’t take them long to arrive, and when they entered, they entered as a group. They took their seats without a word and looked to her, expecting her to bring the meeting to a start.

She let out a sigh under her breath as she began. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, there have been rumors that I was seen in Gotham a while ago as a civilian, heavily wounded. That particular rumor happens to be true." The confirmation of the rumor had all the present Rogues looking ready to commit murder, a few of them going to stand until she waved them off. "I'm fine. A few years ago Paris got its own super villain, Hawkmoth. He had the ability to use people’s negative emotions against them, turning them into monsters through the use of a dangerous magical artifact that had fallen into the wrong hands. In response to his appearance, two heroes appeared in Paris using similar magical artifacts that granted different powers. When I was seen here in Gotham, injured, it was because there were two akumas after me. One wanted to protect me and the other to hurt me. The protective one shoved me through a portal to the streets near my home after the other managed to injure me rather severely. _However,_ the wound was healed due to the powers of the heroine Ladybug, who is able to reset all damage done by an akuma. Hawkmoth was recently captured, his artifacts confiscated by the heroes, and is currently serving time in prison. In effect, the threat has been neutralized.” Even with the news that the one responsible for her injuries was no longer a threat, her Rogues seemed unhappy.

“While it’s great that you’re safe and all, why didn’t ya tell us when this moth-guy popped up sweetheart?” Harley paused for a moment as she cocked her head, staring at Pixie in consideration. "Which prison is this guy in anyway? I just wanna talk."

Pixie graced Harley with a painted look at that. “You know why. I didn’t need any of you traveling to Paris and potentially being akumatized. Normal akumas were bad enough.” She ignored the question of Hawkmoth's current whereabouts.

“How many times were you, specifically, targeted by these akuma this second-rate villain concocted?” Penguin, asking a reasonable question though undoubtedly for sinister purposes. Her answer could very well determine the level of torture Gabriel experienced at the hands of her Rogues. 

“I’m afraid I am unable to answer that due to the high likeliness of one of you arranging a hit on the guy. That and I’m unsure of the _exact_ amount of times. There were a few times that the timeline was messed with in the process.”

“We wouldn’t necessarily _kill_ him. Just... make him suffer a bit. I’m sure he has _very_ interesting fears." Of course he'd say that. Crane would probably love a new test subject for some of his more experimental versions of the fear toxin.

“No.”

“You have to admit, my dear, that what he’s done is unforgivable. Especially considering you must have been involved in the fight somehow. Even if just from the shadows. The Pixie of Gotham is not known to leave a situation alone without interfering.” Damn Nygma and his accurate observations.

“And one of my plants has reported that your left side is now marred by a scar. There are not many things that can leave an impact on one as powerful as you, little flower.” Nettie should've known better than to keep a plant given to her by Ivy in her room. That one was on her.

“Fine. You caught me. I _was_ Ladybug. The scar was left behind by Hawkmoth during our final battle. The artifact he was using ensured it would leave a scar.”

“All the more reason to kill him. All it’ll take is the flip of a coin.” And that was everybody. Everybody in the room besides Pixie was down to murder Hawkmoth. Thanks a lot Dent.

“Guys, please. I took care of it. Settled a curse into his bones like I did with the clown. If you have a problem with the way I handled things you’re more than welcome to have me kick your ass. Free of charge.” She glanced around at each of them, waiting for the reluctant confirmations that they would heed her word before continuing. “Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk shop.”

Getting into normal business was easy, and by the time she called the meeting to an end a few hours later they’d covered everything they needed to cover for Pixie to begin her summer monitoring. With the information she gained from the meeting and the reports her fairies had compiled she knew just about everything currently going down in the underworld. Her familiars would help her cover the rest.

By the next night word had spread that Pixie was in perfect health, and back for the summer season. She was watching. Of course, this news didn’t deter those that believed the reports of her health were falsified. After she took down a group of goons that had attempted to ambush her while she was leaving a meeting with a client, there were no more attempts. There were, however, whispers of mutiny, claims that it hadn't really been her to take them down. This could end up being a problem for Nettie.

Her takedown of those goons had the unfortunate side-effect of attracting the attention of the vigilantes. They were suspicious because a group of criminals was taken down in known criminal territory. And they hadn’t been the ones to do it. Which led to increased vigilante presence in that particular area.

There was also the fact that Tim was growing a bit frantic at not having seen or heard from her yet, which was evident from the way he seemed to be looking for something during his patrols. Nettie was unaware of _why_ he was so frantic until she actually met up with him.

She had surprised him when he was out as Robin, sending Chaos to get his attention and lure him back to her warehouse. She had a feeling it would be better for them to talk about whatever had him so frantic there, under her magical protections and away from prying eyes and ears.

Tim had entered the warehouse warily, following Chaos all the way to her room, where she had brought him after rescuing him from the Joker a few summers before. She was waiting for him, standing next to a small table in the room that she’d set a fresh pot of coffee and some pastries out on.

Even through the mask she could tell when his eyes widened, ending up on the receiving end of a bone-crushing tackle-hug moments later as Chaos scurried off, presumably to find his 'siblings.' She’d hugged him back, even though she was confused at his overwhelming relief.

“ _Nettie,”_ he’d breathed out as he rested his cheek on top of her head, squeezing her a little bit tighter. “You’re here, you’re okay.”

She rubbed soothing circles into his back, trying her best to calm him. “Of course I’m okay, Timmy, why wouldn’t I be?” He pulled back to see the confusion in her voice mirrored on her face. Though he’d pulled back, he hadn’t let go. He still seemed distressed, so she brought her hands up between them and gently peeled off his mask, setting it on the table before cradling his face in her hands.

He was hesitant, but he began to explain, leaning into her touch for comfort. “A few months ago, Nightwing called me over to help him with an injured civilian. When I arrived the civilian was gone, only a large puddle of blood to indicate their presence. That and- and Chaos. Chaos was there. I’ve only ever seen him when you’re around, and when Dick gave me a description of the civilian and told me what had happened, the only person that made sense was you. But you weren’t supposed to be in Gotham. You were supposed to be safe, back in Paris. And then, the blood disappeared. We weren’t sure what’d happened, and I didn’t want to ask if nothing was wrong. Was it you? Were you here, injured on the streets of Gotham?” His eyes pleaded with her to deny it, but she couldn’t lie to him.

“Yes, it was me.” He stiffened immediately, drawing back as his eye drifted towards her left side, where she had been injured, and where a scar was concealed by her clothing. She let her hands slip away from his face to rest at her sides as he reached slowly towards her side with his right hand. His eyes asked a silent question, and she acquiesced with a hesitant nod.

He used a hand to drag up her shirt a little bit, drawing the fabric up hesitantly as he began to uncover the scar Hawkmoth had left behind. When he saw the scar in its entirety he sucked in a sharp breath, pulling off his gloves to run his trembling fingertips gently over the length of the scar, watery gaze focused on the remnant of a terrible wound as he whispered out a quiet “who did this to you Nettie?”

She placed a hand over his, allowing his trembling fingers to rest on the raised tissue of the scar. “...Up until a few months ago, there was a super villain in Paris. He misused a powerful magical artifact to turn people into monsters called akumas, using people’s negative emotions against them. When Nightwing came across me here, bleeding from a wound in my side, it was because someone who hates me caused two separate akumas aimed at me. One of them wanted to hurt me, the other to help me. The one portalled me here to keep me from the other, and portalled me back once the other was subdued. I was completely healed once Ladybug cast her Miraculous Cure.”

“Then why do you still have a scar?” He continued to run his fingers along the length of the raised skin gently, gazing at her intently as he waited for her answer.

She didn’t want him to know she was Ladybug, but she hated lying to him, never had, in fact, other than by omission. Nettie knew what she told him would have to be the truth. She wouldn’t be able to convince him of anything else. “The scar is from a wound I received during the final battle with Hawkmoth, as Ladybug.”

“You were a hero,” he whispered quietly in mild horror. “But, but _why?_ You’ve always told me you didn’t want to be a hero, didn’t want to be a vigilante. What happened to change that?” His fingers stilled on her scar as he waited for an answer.

“That never changed. I didn’t get a choice. I was specifically chosen to be the wielder of the ladybug miraculous. There was no way for me to pass it off onto somebody else. I did what I could, had a partner chosen to wield another miraculous. I even had some temporary heroes, for a time.”

“What happened to them?”

“They were exposed, I couldn’t use them anymore without risk of Hawkmoth intercepting a miraculous.”

The devastation was clear on his face. “Nettie...” she stopped him before he could continue, placing a finger over his lips to silence him.

“Don’t. It wasn’t your fault. I accepted what happened. You couldn’t have known. The mayor blocked all information about the situation from leaving Paris and managed to block all possible ways for anyone to alert the Justice League. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry, but you’ve been worried for months, haven’t you? I’m sorry, Tim. I’m so sorry.” She pulled him back into a tight hug, allowing him to fold her into his arms and keep her pressed against his chest.

“I don’t blame you Nettie. If anyone is at fault it’s the mayor. I wish you hadn’t been forced into being a hero, though I’m glad you know how to protect yourself. I just don’t know how I’m going to tell Jason about this. He’s been on edge for months because of something that happened in the underworld.”

She smushed her face into his chest and murmured for him not to tell Jason, that Jason would shoot the messenger, probably literally, and then burn down the city in search of her. This drew a soft laugh out of Tim, who agreed that Jason wouldn’t hear it from him, though he would be telling Batman about the situation that occurred in Paris.

She couldn’t deny him that.

The rest of the time they spent together before Tim was forced to depart for a debriefing was spent with them attempting to calm each other. Chatting about lighter topics as they shared the pastries and coffee Nettie had prepared for their meeting. Tim had been very reluctant to put on his mask and leave her alone in her warehouse, but if he didn’t leave the other bats and birds would come out looking for him. They had shared one last hug before he had jumped out a window, swinging his way across Gotham to get back to the Batcave.

Nettie stared after him, watching until he’d disappeared between the tall buildings of Gotham. His mention of Jason reminded her that she was going to need to talk with him as Pixie. With him still tuned into underworld news, and Tim’s mention of him being on edge, he would’ve heard the rumors of Pixie being wounded. He wouldn’t believe she was okay until he’d seen her with his own eyes.

Looks like she had another meeting to schedule.

It wouldn’t be for a while yet, as she’d heard Red Hood was out of town on business currently, but the confirmation of a meeting with her would help him chill out a bit. It also gave her something to both look forward to and dread. He wasn’t going to be happy when he learned of the Paris Situation. But it might kick him into finally reaching out to her as Nettie, which would be amazing.

She resolved to text him a time and place to meet up when she woke the next day before she settled into bed to attempt to sleep, her familiars appearing out of nowhere to cuddle up with her. She’d have to put the lingering rumors to rest soon or she’d have a riot on her hands. Looks like beating up a few goons wasn’t enough after all.

She would have to make the rounds and crush the rumors _in person_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next one is in progress!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We see some Tim POV for the first time in the fic!

Learning what he had about the situation Nettie had to deal with in Paris made it very difficult for Tim to leave. The only reason he _did_ finally leave her was because he didn’t want his family to come looking for him. As he swung back toward the cave he felt his fingers tingle, the phantom sensation of newly healed, scarred skin lingering there as he thought about her, Nettie.

It took him no time to return to the cave, lost in his thoughts as he was. He was the last one to arrive. Everyone except for Jason waited at the meeting table near the batcomputer, as Jason was out of town on business. As he sat he was immediately inundated with questions. Where had he been, what happened, why couldn’t they patch into his tracker or his comm. One question finally stood out from the barrage.

“Why did you go off course in the first place?”

“Do you remember a few months ago, when Dick called me over to help him with an injured civilian? The one who disappeared along with the blood they left behind?”

All eyes turned to Dick, as he nodded despite his confusion. “Yeah, I remember that. But what does that have to do with- wait. Did you find her? The civilian?”

He was a bit hesitant, but he had Nettie's permission to talk about it, he just had to leave out her name and identity. “Yeah. I know her, the civilian. The raccoon you saw, the melanistic one, she adopted him. Named him Chaos. When I was on patrol I saw him, but I’ve never seen him around when she was out of town besides the night that civilian was injured. It was odd so I followed him, and he led me right to her.”

“So you knew the civilian that disappeared? Did she tell you what happened?” Dick had been really worried when she disappeared, had said her wound was really severe. It made sense he'd want to know what happened to her.

“Yeah. I’ve known her for a while, saw her around a lot before I became Robin. She told me what happened, and you aren’t gonna like it.” The certainty in his voice was more than enough to make the rest of them a bit wary, as Tim began to explain what Nettie had told him, omitting her name, identity, and just how close they were.

They didn’t quite believe him at first, but when he showed them the rather impressive firewall around Paris, and broke through it with Babs, they were forced to acknowledge that what he’d told them was true; Paris had been suffering, and they hadn’t known about it. As they pulled up videos of the heroes, all of them taking note of just how young they were and the lack of a mentor, he couldn’t help but pay special attention to Ladybug. She was his precious Nettie, after all.

Ladybug performed spectacularly in every battle, from the first to the last, the latter showing her working with two other miraculous holders as she took down Hawkmoth, receiving a nasty gash in her left side for her trouble. The wound that left her with the scar he’d seen, _felt_ a short time ago. His fingertips tingled at the memory.

Chat Noir, on the other hand, performed poorly, often ending up useless before the battle was out. At a certain point he seemed to stop showing up entirely. Unlike Ladybug he seemed to have very little training. The only battle he performed exceptionally well in was the one they all ended up focusing on. The one where Nettie was injured, two akumas after her and Ladybug nowhere to be seen. 

They all watched as one of the akumas caused a deep cut in her side, blood immediately pouring out as she was shoved through a portal, reappearing through a different one and being snatched up by Chat Noir a few minutes later, still bleeding profusely. Ladybug arrived, face pale and movements stiff a few moments after Chat returned without Nettie.

She still looked a bit shaken after purifying the akumas and casting her Cure. Probably the sudden recovery from heavy blood loss.

They sat in silence after the footage cut out, silence only being broken when Dick spoke up. “...How did we not know about this?”

This point Tim was more than happy to divulge. He was still upset that he'd never known she was in danger. “She said the mayor blocked all information about the situation from leaving the city, as well as cutting lines to the Justice League. Even if they tried to ask for help, we wouldn’t have heard.”

“I’ll bring this to the League. We’ll discuss what should be done and arrange a visit to Paris. Dismissed.”

They all dispersed at Bruce’s dismissal, Tim making sure not to get caught by any of the others. He wasn’t going to tell them any more about Nettie without her permission. Not if he could help it. The confirmation that she was okay had assuaged his worries for her, though he was concerned that Jason wouldn’t react well to the news of the Hawkmoth Situation. 

He sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one who told him.

* * *

It hadn’t taken her very long to plan. The people she was going out to intimidate weren’t the brightest, and with her spy network in place there was nowhere in Gotham they could go that she wouldn’t find them. She had their location, now she just needed to decide when to strike.

Nettie was given the perfect opportunity about three weeks after her official arrival to Gotham. All those of the underworld knew Pixie was back and at work, her Rogues having spread the word. Now all that was left was to make an example out of the group that was after her.

They’d been completely unprepared for her to burst into their base of operations, and even more unprepared for the chaos that followed. She’d walked right in through the front door and started taking people out left and right, making good use of her guns to knock them out. All the underlings were down and out for the count a mere five minutes after she’d entered the compound. By the time she’d reached the leaders they were shaking where they stood, all of them falling to their knees before her as they begged for mercy.

They were already receiving it. They had gone against her and spread rumors despite the official confirmation that she was in perfect health. They were lucky she hadn’t let any of her Rogues deal with them. As it was she only smirked at them, donned her custom gas-mask, and dropped a can of fear toxin that immediately started spreading throughout the room.

“Next time you think about crossing me, remember that I was merciful. If I wasn’t you would already be dead without me lifting a finger. I’m a big player for a _reason.”_ She disappeared as the last word echoed through the building, leaving the group behind as they began to experience their worst fears.

If she’d tinkered with the toxin a bit, using magic to make it feel a bit more real, well... nobody had to know.

As far as she was concerned this short-lived group of those who would go against her weren’t her problem anymore. Having her show up to take care of them personally would send a message that she wasn’t to be trifled with. The goons themselves wouldn’t come after her again, and would likely deter others from trying.

Which meant she could turn her focus to other things, like her meeting with Jason, who was finally back in the city. She’d arranged the meeting shortly after seeing Tim for the first time, and the date of the meeting was fast approaching. From what Tim had told her, after she’d arranged the meeting with Jason he’d been less on edge. Then Dick had filled him in on what’d happened in Paris and he’d been furious. She definitely couldn’t tell him that she’d been injured by Hawkmoth as Pixie. He’d kill him for sure.

She had him meet her in the same building they’d met in before she’d removed the destructive energy the Pit left behind. As soon as he walked through the door she’d dragged him into the shadows with her and into her warehouse. He staggered slightly as she let him go and went to sit on a nearby sofa.

Regaining his balance, he pulled off his helmet and peeled off his mask to glare at her. “Do you have to keep dragging me places? Couldn’t you just have me meet you where you wanted to be in the first place?”

“No. We’re currently in what many refer to as the Fairy Court, and its location is obscured through various magical and technological means. You’d never make it here without a guide.”

“Well you look a lot less injured than people were claiming. What’s the deal with that?”

“While I was, briefly, injured, I am in perfect health. The one who injured me has been dealt with.”

“What d’ya mean you were injured? How bad was it?” Ooh, he wasn’t happy. Not happy at all.

“I _mean_ that I got caught up in a situation that resulted in injury to my person. It was nothing a little magic couldn’t fix.” And it wasn’t, at least not the first time.

“Really?” He seemed skeptical. Probably his older brother senses acting up.

“Yes. I took care of it. And no, I’m not going to tell you who caused it.”

“Never said I wanted to know.” Though it was said nonchalantly, they both knew he was anything but, and that his statement wasn’t true. She gave him a pointed look, prompting him to change the subject. “Anyways, you know my sister Nettie right? Or know _of_ her, at least.”

“Yes, I know her. I’ve met her a few times when I’ve gone out as a civilian. Why?”

“She tell you about what happened in Paris?”

“I am aware of the Hawkmoth Situation, yes.”

“...Do you know how she is? The replacement told me she was fine, but I’m pretty sure he thinks if he tells me anything else I’ll kill him.”

“Nettie is in perfect health, Jason. There’s no reason for you to worry.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “...Thanks.”

She smiled at him. “Anytime. Now, would you care to fill me in on what you were up to out of town?”

She already knew, of course. But it was nice to get information directly from the source. They talked business for a while, Jason commenting on that group that got blasted by a strangely potent version of Scarecrow’s fear toxin. He had nothing against it, even complimented the way she’d shut down all the rumors, took out the opposition, and made it seem as though the attack was led by Scarecrow when those of the underworld knew the truth. Plus, the bats had no leads on any outside involvement. They were convinced it was just a fight between Crane and some upcoming group that crossed him somehow.

Which is exactly what they were supposed to think.

They chatted for a while after that, discussing the state of the underworld and the finer details of the situation in Paris before pixie led him back to the building they’d started in so he could go deal with the bats, who’d been trying to get a hold of him for a while. He’d completely ignored all their calls, which Nettie had found endlessly amusing. She was still a bit bummed that Jason didn’t want to risk seeing her as Nettie, but they’d meet as civilians again eventually. Even if she had to specifically engineer a situation that would allow it.

Once all the drama that came with her being injured was taken care of, things settled back down. Everything was business as usual, though Tim was in and out of the city due to his role in one of the teen hero teams. He’d put in a lot of effort to spend time with her, still reeling from the shock that he could’ve lost her to a threat nobody had ever known about.

Their birthday celebration was calm, just the two of them chilling in her warehouse, eating a cake that she’d made for the two of them themed after their hero identities. Tim had gotten a good laugh out of that. And to think it’d now been seven years since the Dupain-Cheng couple had snatched her off the streets of Gotham. She was 15 now, Tim 16. They’d known each other for close to nine years.

How time flies when you’re inadvertently ruling over the city’s underworld and fighting an incompetent butterfly-man.

She chose to ignore the celebrations thrown over her birthday by members of the underworld. It still weirded her out that it’d been made a holiday. She refused to acknowledge the fact that her Rogues were trying to set her up as a queen. It still seemed too ludicrous to be real.

Spending her _entire_ summer in Gotham was really nice. No akumas, no guardian training, and no Chat Noir. Only the usual brand of crazy that comes from associating with a bunch of villains and a couple vigilantes.

It made for a really chill summer. She was still upset that she’d have to go back to Paris, though she had a feeling there was going to be some chaos occurring in Gotham soon. All the really crazy things happened when she was away for school. She hoped Tim and Jason wouldn’t have to deal with too much of it, though it seemed like the brunt of the chaos would be aimed at Bruce, so she wasn’t too worried.

Tim seemed ready to _actually_ kidnap her when they met for the last time of her stay in Gotham. She was tempted to let him, but she didn’t want to have to deal with a missing persons case and she wanted to torment Lila some more. They’d shared a long hug when it was time for them to part, and she had to leave quickly before she changed her mind and stayed just so she could be with Tim.

She could only hope the school year would be somewhat peaceful for once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is in the works, though it is fighting me a bit. 
> 
> That said, if I end up doing an outtakes for this fic like I did with _The Contingency,_ would you be interested in reading scenes that didn't quite make the cut? Let me know what you think!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the plot of this chapter twice. Hence my question at the end of last chapter over whether you'd like to see things that didn't make the cut. It turned out okay, but it definitely put up a fight. Hope you're ready for lots of dialogue.

School was... interesting, without Adrien around. Lila had nobody to latch onto so she kept spinning her lies bigger and bigger. It was a shame she’d recovered from the implications of terrorism, but she was sticking to their deal. Nettie was glad to see there was no need for a second warning. Not that she'd give one. Next time Lila stepped out of line, she'd face the consequences.

Though they were now in their first year of lycée, the curriculum was still too easy for Nettie, who’d grown up getting her lessons from the Riddler. She was ahead in all subjects. Which was great because now she had more free time to work on commissions and check in on the Rogues. Everything was great until Adrien was allowed back to school.

He hadn’t gotten over his obsession, and with Ladybug out of the picture Nettie was now his sole focus. He wanted to go out with her, but she’d refused, multiple times. This was just the latest in his long series of attempts.

He approached her confidently, sunshine smile firmly in place. “Hey Mari! Want to go to the Jagged Stone concert with me? As a date?”

Nettie let out an exasperated sigh, rolling her eyes before responding. “Adrien, we’ve been over this. I don’t like you in that way. There’s only one person I’d consider going out with, and he’s thousands of miles away.” With that, she turned to walk away, intent on heading to her greenhouse to enjoy its calming atmosphere.

He grabbed her arm roughly, forcing her to face him, fingers digging into the skin hard enough to bruise as he hissed. “Who? Who could you possibly like more than _me?”_

She ripped her arm away from him. “None of your business, _Noir_.” She took off before he could shake off his shock, slipping into some shadows as a shortcut and coming out in the shade of her willow tree. She'd never been more glad that she'd learned shadow travel.

Nettie was tired, and she didn’t have anything pressing to take care of, so she decided to nap at the base of the tree, the Kwami all settling on or around her to participate in the impromptu nap-time. At least the Kwami were still decent company. They also cared about her. A lot. She was pretty sure that they'd obliterate Adrien, Lila, and just about anyone else if she wasn't keeping them in check. Why did she end up practically ruling over so many powerful people and/or beings? It was getting ridiculous.

The next few months Adrien’s behavior became more erratic, and he continued his attempts to pursue her. She was getting worried. It seemed like he was training, in fighting specifically. It made her extremely uneasy, and as a result she was seen around the city less and less in her efforts to successfully avoid him.

Her greenhouse was her one true safe-haven. She’d spent years layering the protections on it, and there was no way for anybody to get close without her knowing. Normal humans wouldn’t be able to find it at all. Even others with experience in magic would have difficulty reaching the place, as Adrien found when he tried to follow her. He’d ended up lost halfway across the city. And yet he continued to try and follow her. When he was _clearly_ unwanted. Nettie had thought him smarter than that.

Short of going full-on Pixie mode, she didn’t know how to get him to stop. A few people in class helped keep him occupied for her, but if she told anyone she was being relentlessly stalked by a _model,_ one known to be an embodiment of sunshine to boot, they wouldn’t believe her. If she told Tim, Jason, or the Rogues it wouldn't matter if they believed her. They'd track him down regardless, and that wasn't an encounter she was sure he'd survive.

He hadn’t done anything to warrant her releasing their rage. Not yet at least.

All she could do was avoid him, through whatever means available, and whatever means necessary. Whether it be helping out in the bakery more often, doing more as class president, volunteering for things, or just straight-up hiding away somewhere. It became _extremely_ difficult for anyone to pin her down. Adrien certainly wasn’t happy about it, but it worked.

The only notable thing that happened besides Adrien beginning to stalk her was the Justice League visiting Paris. And when they got there, they wanted to meet the so-called Akuma Class. Which just so happened to be _her_ class. How amazing.

The class was brought to the city hall to meet with them. When they arrived they were met with Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Flash. Their reaction left much to be desired. They were all so used to seeing Ladybug and whoever she dragged along with her that these foreign heroes didn’t really excite them. Didn't stop Alya from filming for her blog though.

Mayor Bourgeois was there as the host to the League and parent of one of the students. He therefore got the job of kicking things off. “Esteemed members of the Justice League, this is the- er... Akuma Class.”

The League members basically ignored him. Superman stepped forward as their spokesperson. “On behalf of all the League, we extend our apologies for our ignorance of your situation. If we had learned of it beforehand you may not have suffered so much, and for this reason, we are deeply sorry.”

The class exchanged unimpressed glances, having a silent conversation to decide who would speak for them before Nettie was _literally_ shoved forward to deal with them while a hand was clamped over Alya’s mouth to make sure she didn’t blurt out questions. This got some strange looks from the League, but the class didn’t notice or care.

Nettie looked back at Kim, who had shoved her forward, in mild betrayal. He shrugged apologetically, to which Nettie rolled her eyes before turning to face the heroes, who were staring at her. “...We appreciate the apology, but Ladybug had everything well in hand.”

“From what we’ve seen Ladybug was very capable, but she shouldn’t have had to deal with the situation alone with no adult help. May I ask your name? And which akuma you were?” Of course Superman would assume a student in the Akuma Class had been an akuma. He had no reason not to.

She hesitated a bit. A name meant they could look into her history, but not giving one would be suspicious and she couldn’t afford excess suspicion. Especially not when Batman seemed to recognize her. “I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the class president. I was never akumatized, though I was the target of multiple akumas.”

“You were the one that was teleported to Gotham. The one Nightwing tried to help.” It wasn’t a question, but she still felt like she had to answer.

“Ah, yes. That was me.”

“Your injuries seemed quite severe according to Nightwing and the footage we saw of the fight.” To his credit, Batman _did_ seem mildly concerned.

“I- I guess it was pretty bad, but Ladybug’s Cure fixed me up.”

“Do you know why your class in particular seemed to produce so many akumas?” This was starting to feel like an interrogation. Thanks Batman.

All of the students glanced at Chloe and Lila. This did not go unnoticed by the League.

“Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! It’s not _my_ fault you guys are so sensitive!”

Lila turned on the waterworks. “I, I never meant to hurt anyone! And I didn’t mean to be akumatized so many times! I’m so sorry you guys.”

Half the class went to comfort her as the other half rolled their eyes. 

“Please ignore them, there were many factors that could’ve contributed to the many akumatizations of our class members. Teenage hormones, Chloe, Lila being employed by Hawkmoth, Adrien being in our class... There’s a lot of reasons, really. Only myself and Adrien were never akumatized.”

“How is it that you escaped it?”

“For me? Meditation, mostly. I don’t know about Adrien.”

They all turned to look at the model, who was uncomfortable at the sudden attention. He scrambled for an answer, eventually just shrugging and giving a half-hearted “luck?” that nobody really _bought_ but couldn’t disprove.

“Regardless, we’re sorry you had to endure so much for so long. We’d like to speak to Ladybug as well, but from what we’ve heard she hadn’t been seen since the trial. We were wondering if any of you had a way to message her, since she seemed to keep tabs on you.”

So they had a reason to talk to them besides an apology. Typical.

She pretended to think about it while the rest of the class _actually_ thought about it. “Well... she’s never contacted us directly. If she ever wanted something she’d come to us, like when she picked some of the class to be temporary heroes. She’s never given out a direct way to contact her. If the mayor or a news outlet wanted to speak to her they would make a public statement asking her to meet with them, and she’d either show up or send word that she couldn’t make it. Since your arrival was covered by multiple news agencies, she undoubtedly knows you’re here. If you want to actually _speak_ to her, you’ll probably have to make a public request.”

“Of course. We’re sorry for asking, but your mayor wouldn’t give us a clear answer. You were all very brave in the face of this threat. Might we know your names and the names of your hero and akuma identities?” Wonder Woman's statement about the mayor made sense. He wouldn't tell the heroes how to contact Ladybug because he himself didn't know how. Nettie did wonder why she asked after their aliases though, especially when it was public knowledge.

They had no reason to decline, so they went around the room and gave their name and alias, or aliases if they’d been akumatized more than once or had moonlighted as a temp hero.

“So all but two of the temporary heroes were from your class? Did Ladybug pick all of you herself?”

They all turned to Nettie once again. Even though as far as all of them but Adrien knew, she’d never been a hero. She sighed, but acquiesced. “From what was revealed after the Miracle Queen Incident, only a few of the heroes were chosen by Ladybug. The rest found a miraculous nearby when she needed help, presumably given out by the Guardian though Ladybug was still the one to collect them.”

A bell tolled before anymore questions could be asked, signaling the end of their time meeting the League. They were thanked for their cooperation and allowed to leave. Since it was also the end of the school day, they were free to go home, so Nettie melted into the shadows as quick as she could to avoid being cornered by Adrien.

There was a public request put out by the League that night for Ladybug to meet with them the next day. She didn’t want to go out as Ladybug, but she didn’t want the League to keep looking for her. Which meant she was going to have to meet them.

Oh joy.

Regardless of her thoughts on the matter, she showed up to the appointed meeting place at the specified time. They were waiting for her when she arrived.

“Greetings, Ladybug. I am Princess Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Queen Hippolyta, a former wielded of the ladybug miraculous.”

“A pleasure. You wanted to speak with me?”

“We wanted to apologize for our ignorance of the situation. If we’d known we would’ve offered to aid you in your fight against Hawkmoth.”

“It’s in the past, there’s no use dwelling on it. There was no way for you to know with the mayor sweeping everything under the rug and Hawkmoth going dark when other heroes visited the city. I don’t blame you for it. Is there anything else you wanted to speak to me about?”

“You are the current Guardian, correct?” At her nod, Diana continued. “We would like to offer you a place in the League, and help you protect the miraculous in whatever way possible.”

“I’m going to have to decline. I’m officially retired, and have no desire to join a hero team at this point in time. I appreciate your offer of assistance but I have everything under control.”

They didn’t look too happy with that answer, but they couldn’t force her without riling up all of Paris.

“Of course, we respect your decision.”

This is where Batman came in. Time for the interrogation. “If you don’t mind, we have some questions we’d like to ask you about the situation.” Nettie gestured for him to continue. “When did you first suspect Gabriel Agreste?”

“When I saw his son with a book of the miraculous that he’d found in Gabriel’s safe. There was no reason for him to have it if he didn’t know of the miraculous. I wanted to investigate him right away but my master told me we needed more evidence.”

“And how did you get that evidence?”

“I didn’t get the chance to properly investigate him until after I was named Guardian, but when I did I put him under surveillance. Seeing multiple akumas fly out of a butterfly window was a bit of a tip-off.”

“Who did you bring with you as backup when you confronted him? There are two people with you, but neither of them had ever been seen before that fight.”

“I didn’t bring anyone with me. I made use of the mouse miraculous to split myself in three and merged each one with a different miraculous. I couldn’t trust anyone but myself in the matter.” Batman looked like he sympathized while the others seemed mildly concerned.

“What about Chat Noir?” This was asked by Superman, and while it was a reasonable question, the answer should've been obvious.

“What about him? You’ve seen the footage. He wasn’t the most reliable. Plus, he had connections to Gabriel, and there was no guarantee he wouldn’t turn against me.” This answer seemed to surprise Superman.

“So you know who he is?”

“Yes. I know who all the miraculous wielders were during the Hawkmoth Situation.”

“Did you ever try to reach out to us?” And there was the question she'd been waiting for. Thanks Lantern.

“I did, once. The mayor had already blocked the lines by that point, and I didn’t feel it necessary to try again when I had everything under control.” Her yo-yo beeped, and she slid the screen up so she could check it. It was a reminder from Tikki that she had school in the morning and would need to rest soon. It _also_ served as a convenient excuse to leave. “Excuse me. I need to leave for a prior engagement.”

“Of course. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us despite your retirement.”

She gave them a nod before she flung her yo-yo out and swung away, dropping into an alley to disappear through the shadows in case they tried to follow her. Nettie reappeared safely in her bed, glad to be away from the members of the League. They would be leaving soon, but having met Batman as Marinette _and_ as Ladybug was sure to make for an interesting summer in Gotham.

Tim was probably already freaking out over the news. There was no reason for Bruce to do a background check, but if he was aware that she spent all her summers in Gotham she might be tracked down by the bats over break. Hopefully the chaos she’d foreseen would keep them too busy to look for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the chapter! There's some chaos coming up in the next one!
> 
> There has been significant interest in seeing deleted scenes, so I will likely be uploading outtakes sometime after this fic is finished.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for some more badass Mari. And dialogue. Lots and lots of dialogue.

Turns out the chaos was just Damian’s arrival. He caused _quite_ a bit of trouble. From attempting to murder the previous Robins to sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. The only positive was that she’d gotten to help Tim design his new suit, and she was able to talk him out of the awful cowl he wanted to use. Not on her watch. That thing was a disaster that made him look 30 years older than he was.

Damian also didn’t seem to know how to chill. At all. He’d sneak out to try and follow his brothers whenever they had meetings they wouldn't tell him about. This included following Jason when he was going to meet with her. He had yet to succeed with her familiars running interference, but with his determination he was going to get _somewhere_ she didn’t want him to. He was also the only Robin that her fairies would _actively_ hide from. They didn’t even hide from Red Hood.

His determination to prove himself better than his predecessors was what landed them in this situation to begin with. Jason, Tim, and Damian had all managed to get captured. By _Joker._ The one criminal that couldn’t even directly hurt them. Jason and Tim had only been captured because they went after Damian, and now all three of them were forced to watch as Joker prepared an extremely roundabout way of hurting them. Which confused the birds quite a bit.

And to top it all off, Nightwing was still at least 15 minutes out, the girls were on vacation, and Batman was off-planet. She was the only person available to help them, and she had to do it herself because they wouldn’t trust the Rogues if she sent them. Of all the ways she thought she’d be outed, this wasn’t one of them.

She could only sigh in exasperation as Nyx relayed the news. Her first day back in Gotham and she already had trouble to deal with. Of course they’d make life harder for her. There was no time to dwell on it, so she put on her glamour, changed into one of her Pixie outfits, made sure she had her equipment, and headed out.

It took her less than a minute to get there, and when she did she used her magic to blow the doors off the joint. She proceeded to float into the room for intimidation factor, ending up right in Joker’s face. It was obvious that she was angry. “What have I told you,” she seethed, “about _touching my birds?”_

She could just barely hear Jason as he cursed under his breath. “Oh shit. Pixie’s pissed.”

Joker broke out in a nervous sweat as he attempted to justify himself. “Oh come on, Pixie! _They_ came after _me!_ It’s only fair that I get to hurt them a little!”

“I thought you learned your lesson after I saved the last one from you. I shouldn’t have had to after I cursed you for killing the second one. Tell me, Joker. Do you really want to test me?”

His goons finally snapped into action, aiming to kill her. She calmly cast a spell, knocking them all unconscious one by one, Joker growing more desperate as each one hit the ground. He made to run, but the sudden burning pain in his bones prevented him, causing him to collapse to the ground.

He glared up at her. “You just love to ruin all my fun!”

“We’ve been over this you sad excuse for a clown. If you want to have fun, go after the bat. Consider this your last warning. Next time you go after one of the birds, I won’t be so merciful.” She knocked him out after that, landing gently on the floor before walking over to the birds, coming to a stop in front of them.

All but Jason looked up at her warily. “Remind me never to piss you off Pixie. You can be pretty fucking scary when you put your mind to it.”

“Always a pleasure Jay. Mind explaining how you got your dumb ass captured by this fool _again?_ He isn’t even able to hurt you directly after the curse I put on him when you died. How did you even get into this mess?”

“Wait. You really cursed him?”

She rolled her eyes. “Were you not listening? Of course I cursed him. He causes me nothing but trouble.” She reached out to untie him when she was intercepted by a birdarang. Nightwing had finally arrived. “Well, looks like that’s my cue to leave. See ya Hood.”

“Wait-!“ But she was already gone, having melted into the shadows, only to reappear, hidden, on one of the upper levels. She wanted to gather information firsthand.

Nightwing dropped down and hurried to free his siblings, looking around like he was expecting Pixie to reappear and attack. Jason caught onto this and smacked the back of his head.

“Stop looking for her you idiot. Even if she was still here you wouldn’t be able to see her.”

“Who is she anyway? And how do you know her?”

“That was Pixie. She’s a pretty big deal in the underworld. Helped me get situated after I came back, knew exactly who I was and why I was back. It’s best not to get on her bad side.”

“Tt. If she’s such a big player why didn’t we know about her?”

“Well for one, she’s not much of a criminal. Far as I can tell all she does is keep some of the more dangerous Rogues in check. Supposedly has a spy network to keep tabs on things. For two, she’s done everything she can to stay off the bat’s radar. _Nobody_ could talk about her to anyone who didn’t know, and she always schedules her meetings in complete secrecy. Only reason I can even talk to you guys about this is because you saw her.”

“Why did she help us?”

“Pixie has a soft spot for us birds, apparently. Rumor has it she cursed the Joker after he killed me. Made it so he couldn’t hurt anymore Robins. When he tried to get around it by having his goons kidnap and torture Red, well... let’s just say she wasn’t too happy about it.”

“She _cursed_ him? So she’s magic?”

“If she isn’t magic, I don’t know what is.” Some of the goons started to groan, indicating their return to consciousness. “We’ll talk later. Let’s take care of these guys first.”

That was her cue to _actually_ leave, so she returned to her warehouse. So much for remaining under the bat’s radar. Thanks a lot Damian.

Now she was going to have the bats after her as Pixie as well as Nettie. And because of it, both Tim and Jason were going to be freaking out. She’d already gotten several rather frantic messages from Tim when he found out she’d had to meet up with the League as Nettie _and_ as Ladybug. It was only a matter of time before Jason started worriedly messaging her.

Things were fine until Batman got back from space. Then she was dodging vigilantes left and right, no matter who she went out as. Nettie didn’t even get the chance to see Tim because she was constantly avoiding the bats, and he was never alone. It sucked.

It sucked even more when Batman had Zatanna visit the city. Then she had to worry about the vigilantes _and_ a magic user. Not her idea of a good time. She’d complained to Tim and Jason multiple times, but they couldn’t stop the bat when he was determined to figure something out.

The worst part was that Zatanna was starting to make headway in tracking her as Pixie. Which meant Nettie would need to shore up her defenses and stage a confrontation. She’d need her Rogues to back her up. They’d been helping her stay clear of the batfam, so they already knew the situation. Arranging a confrontation was easy. All she had to was ask Ivy and Harley to cause some trouble in the Wayne Botanical Gardens while having the others back them up. That would lure in the bats, and a magical beacon would bait Zatanna. Then she could confront them all at once.

They waited until the bats were just about done with their patrol. They caused just enough chaos to draw them in, Zatanna coming along due to the beacon of magic. Once everyone was present the Rogues ceased their actions, grouping up near the entrance of the Gardens as Pixie appeared a few feet in front of them.

She killed the beacon as the bats and Zatanna came close enough for them to be able to speak with her. “You’ve been looking for me. Why?”

“You’re an unknown. A potential threat.”

Nightwing jumped in. “And based on what Zatanna has told us you’re a pretty powerful mage.”

“So I am. What of it? I’ve committed no crimes.”

“You cursed the Joker. In a way that can’t be broken.” Ooh, Batman was in interrogation mode.

“So?” Pixie tilted her head at them in question. “He deserved it. If he hadn’t gone against my city-wide mandate he wouldn’t have been cursed.”

“What mandate?”

“The one where she warned us to leave your birds alone. Sent out the notice when you got Robin #2 over there. Mr. J ignored it and killed the bird, got cursed for his trouble.”

“And now he _can’t_ hurt the birds. I’m still surprised he didn’t learn after you kicked his ass for kidnapping Robin #3.” Ivy shook her head slightly as she lamented Joker's inability to leave good enough alone.

“He always did like to push boundaries. Pretty sure she’ll let us kill ‘im if there’s a next time.”

She held up a hand to silence them. “That information is unimportant. Now, what do you really want with me?”

Jason snorted. “Probably to adopt you. He does like taking in troubled kids.”

“I have parents.”

“That can be fixed.” While technically true, she didn't appreciate the implication that Jason would murder her adoptive parents.

“Gee, thanks Hood. That’s exactly what I want to hear. How much did you tell them anyway?”

He shrugged, ignoring the glare she directed his way. “Uh- you know. The basics? Big player, not a real criminal, could probably kick our asses six ways to Sunday, tiny as all hell...”

“Why must you torture me so?”

“Hey, I just call it like I see it.” He was probably smirking under that helmet. Bastard.

She rolled her eyes at him, blocking a sudden sword strike from Damian, who’d apparently gotten fed up with all the talking. “Is that any way to greet your temporary handler?”

Damian froze in his shock, as did Jason, though he managed to recover first. “Hold the fucking phone. Pixie, you were that tiny assassin Talia threw at me? I thought you were dead!”

“Okay, first of all, I’ve never killed anybody. So I’m not actually an assassin. Second of all, reports of my demise may’ve been exaggerated. But to be fair Talia had arranged for me to be killed on that last mission, I just took advantage and faked my death.”

“You look nothing like you did when I met you.”

She wiggled her fingers at him. “I used a glamour. I’m magic, remember?”

“You got me there. What were you doing with the League in the first place?”

“Watching out for you.”

“Why the fuck-“

“You disappeared from a hospital in the middle of nowhere. Certain people were worried.” Certain people referring to Nettie, who he thought was a separate person from Pixie.

“...Well fuck.”

“If you are who you claim to be, say something only they would know.” Looks like Damian had finally recovered from the shock.

“You thought I was a mute so you would rant to me about things because you thought I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone or complain about it.”

Everyone stared at Damian. “Aww, baby bat! Was she your first friend?” Nightwing cooed at him.

“Shut up!”

“I’m gonna take that as a yes.”

As his children bickered, Batman looked more and more exasperated. He ended up ignoring them. “How did you first become involved with the Rogues?”

“I insulted Riddler’s clothing.”

“What’s your role?”

“Technically I don’t have one. I am, however, around 85% of their impulse control.”

“Have you assisted in any crimes?”

“No. I’ve stopped or sabotaged some though.”

“Hmm.”

Zatanna stepped in at the Bat's pause in questioning. “Who taught you? Magic, that is. You’re one of the most powerful mages I’ve ever met.”

“I helped a self-proclaimed witch once. She taught me what she knew and I ended up having a natural affinity for it. The rest I learned through self study.”

Batman took over as Zatanna fell silent in shock. “How old were you when you became involved with the underworld?”

“I was five. Didn’t really do much until I turned six.”

All of the bats stared at her in shock. All of them had been _years_ older than that when they became vigilantes.

“Pixie, I love you, but what the absolute fuck?”

She waved off his concerns. “Is that all you wanted to know? Will you quit looking for me now?”

A pointed glance at the Rogues behind her let her know that they probably wanted to make a deal with her, but wouldn’t with the Rogues around. “That’s all we needed to know. As long as you don’t cause trouble we won’t actively come after you.”

“That’s all I ask. See ya!” A flashy display of magic later, she and the Rogues were gone, and any damage they had caused was fixed.

Now if only she could get them to leave her alone as Nettie, everything would be great. Unfortunately she got the feeling that wasn’t going to happen, at least not for a while. Which was a real bummer because she wanted to see Tim.

At least she had the feeling they’d clear things up by the end of the summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is in the works!
> 
> Also! Many of you have already seen it, but I posted a timinette one-shot. It's called _Willingly Kidnapped_ if you're interested. It _is_ just a one-shot, however, so there will be no continuation. I'll link to it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24862546) if you want to read it.
> 
> Next chapter will be up tomorrow! Thanks for reading!


	13. Chapter 13

Okay, so when she sensed that things would be cleared up by the end of the summer, she’d thought they would talk about it. She _hadn’t_ thought that Joker was suicidal enough to kidnap her. Apparently he’d taken notice of how two of the Robins had often spent time with her and came to the conclusion that if he couldn’t hurt them _physically_ he’d hurt them _emotionally_. When and how he'd seen them with her she had absolutely no clue.

It was actually a pretty solid plan. And since he had no idea she was Pixie, she might’ve let him get away with it. At least, she might’ve if he hadn’t broadcasted her capture straight to the bats _That_ earned him two pissed-off birds busting in through the skylight, one of them with guns blazing and no rubber bullets to spare.

Jason shot the goons in non-lethal places, and he only hit them with a bullet each. Tim had used the chaos to untie Nettie, bringing her to an upper level with him handing her a spare staff he’d brought for her to use. They helped Jason take out the rest of the goons before cornering the Joker.

Jason had both his guns trained on Joker’s head when they approached him. He was prepared to shoot when Nettie placed a hand on his arm and glared down at the Joker. “While this was a creative attempt to hurt the birds, Pixie is _not_ going to be happy about it. You might want to stay in Arkham for a while.” With that said, she hit him across the face with her staff and knocked him out cold.

“Hey! I wanted to shoot him!”

“Isn’t it better for him to suffer than give him an easy way out?”

“...”

The rest of the bats chose that moment to show up, Bruce and Nightwing immediately clocking her as the injured civilian. The girl they’d been looking for since the beginning of the summer. Tim cuffed the Joker while the rest of the bats approached, Batman in the lead.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng. We’ve been looking for you.”

“I know. That’s why you haven’t found me.” They didn't seem to know what to say to this.

“Wait hold up. How long have you guys been looking for Nettie? Replacement! Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Jason waved a hand in the vague direction of the bats while he glared at Tim.

Tim crossed his arms as he walked over from where he cuffed the Joker to stand with Nettie, shooting Jason a half-hearted glare. “I did. You ignored me.”

Nettie rolled her eyes. “It’s not his fault if you didn’t listen to him in the first place Jay.” Nettie realized her mistake as the vigilantes froze, all eyes honing in on her. “...Oops?”

Nightwing was the one to ask the question, Batman too busy glaring at her in consideration. “How long have you known?”

She had no choice but to admit it. “...Since Jason got plucked off the streets by Batman. He wasn’t exactly subtle when he was looking for me.”

“Why would he be looking for you?” The confusion on Nightwing's face would've been funny if they were talking about literally _anything_ else.

Jason turned his glare from Tim to Nightwing. “Because she’s my baby sister you dumbass. Has been since I first met her on the streets.”

“You never mentioned a sister!”

“Yeah, cuz it’s none of your business. I didn’t want B over there to find out and adopt her.”

“Technically he can’t do that. I have adoptive parents now.”

Bruce just sighed. “Police are on their way. Let’s take this conversation back to the cave.”

She rode with Tim back to the Batcave, relishing in being able to touch him for the first time since she’d left the previous summer. Based on the way he relaxed at her touch, he was happy to be in close proximity to her as well. They were back in the cave in no time, and she was directed to sit at a meeting table near the computer, Jason and Tim flanking her as the others took their seats.

Batman began the questioning. “What do we call you?”

“Well, when I was adopted my name was changed to Marinette, but my original name was Annette. That’s why Jay and Timmy call me Nettie. You can call me that too if you want.”

“Alright. Why do you keep returning to Gotham when you have no blood family here?”

“Well, I have work here. And I like to see Tim and Jason. Just because I live in Paris doesn’t mean I consider it home.” Tim shot her a sympathetic look at that. Maybe she should take him up on his standing offer of one free kidnapping.

“What kind of work?”

“I’m an aspiring fashion designer and some of my best clients are here. Tim is one of them.” True, but not the whole truth. Her main clients were the Rogues.

“Why were you avoiding us if you knew we were looking for you?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re kind of intimidating.”

“...She’s got a point there B.”

Batman wasn't convinced. “You had no trouble speaking to me when the League visited your class.”

“I was nominated to be the spokesperson. I had no choice. I also had a lot of witnesses.” Implication being she didn't trust them not to try something.

“Before you knocked out Joker you mentioned Pixie. How do you know about her?”

“I was a street kid. Still kinda am when I visit for the summer. Of course I noticed all the fairy pins, and when I asked around, I got to meet her. So we know each other.”

Jason snorted. “Yeah, right. She infiltrated the League of Assassins to keep tabs on me for you. You don’t do that for a casual acquaintance.”

She glared at him. “We’re friends.”

“Well _I_ think you know who she is.” She continued to glare. “Do you?”

“Maybe.” Her glare intensified as Jason's mirth rose.

“Hood.”

“Fine, fine. Hey, if you don’t have family here where do you stay when you come back? The replacement would never tell me.”

She shared a glance with Tim. “I don’t need you showing up at random hours of the day, Jay. As much as I love you, you can be quite the handful.”

“Suspicious.” He narrowed his eyes at her.

“Well I’m not going to tell you. So tough.” They fell into a somewhat tense silence for a while after that. Nobody seemed to know what to say.

Nettie just wanted to leave. “Is my interrogation over? Am I free to leave or have I just been kidnapped into the clan?”

Tim sighed. “Nettie, we didn’t kidnap you. You aren’t going to be forced to stay here, and this wasn’t an interrogation.”

“Does that mean I can go home?”

Bruce went to speak, presumably to tell her no, but was cut off by Tim, who shot him a sharp glare. “ _Yes,_ you can go home. I’ll escort you.”

He got up and led her away before any of them could protest, leading her to his motorcycle and proceeding to drive her back to her warehouse. He could only reach it because she was with him. Once they arrived she led him up to her room and collapsed onto her bed, Tim sitting beside her.

He took off his gloves and mask and ran a hand through her hair as he sat with her. “I’m surprised you let him catch you. I was really worried, you know. Being captured by the Joker isn’t a very pleasant experience.”

She sat up properly to pull him into a hug, burying her face into his shoulder as he rested his cheek on her head and hugged her back tightly. “I’m sorry Timmy. I didn’t mean to worry you. He came out of nowhere, and I never expected to be targeted in Gotham. Once I realized what was happening, I knew it would be suspicious if I broke free.”

“I’m just glad you’re safe. The first time I get to see you since you came back and it’s on a screen because Joker wanted to use you to hurt us.” The devastation at the thought he could lose her was clear in his tone.

“It’s okay Tim. You and Jay showed up to save me, just like I knew you would.”

He pulled back so he could look her in the eyes, refusing to let go. “I don’t know what I’d do without you Nettie.”

She reached up and settled a hand against his face, Tim immediately leaning into her touch even as he shifted so their foreheads were touching. He searched her eyes for a minute before leaning in slowly and capturing her lips in a chaste kiss. When she didn’t pull away he deepened the kiss, pulling her tighter against him as she reciprocated.

When he pulled back he looked down at her cautiously. “Was- was that okay?”

“It was more than okay, Tim. Does this mean you want to- ?”

“Yes. I would love for us to be together. I’ve liked you as more than a friend for a while now. That’s actually a big part of why things didn’t work out with Steph. Do you want to be with me?”

“I would like nothing more.” She hesitated for a second before continuing. “If we are going to be together, then there _is_ something you should know. I don’t want you to find out later and think I didn’t trust you, so I’m just going to say it.” She took a breath and looked up at Tim. “I’m Pixie.”

“That... makes a surprising amount of sense.”

“You aren’t mad?” Her expression became hopeful.

“Why would I be mad? It’s not like you’re a criminal. And I _know_ you’re not a bad person. A bad person would take advantage of their underworld status, but you never have. A bad person wouldn’t help save a city when they were chosen, they'd pawn it off on somebody else or use the powers they were granted for their own gain. There’s nothing you could tell me that would make me hate you, Nettie. I know you too well.”

She smiled up at him, pulling him back into a hug as she snuggled into his chest, content to just sit there with him for as long as they were able. Even though the bats now knew _way_ more than she was comfortable with, she was glad it was over with. Having to hide away from vigilantes all the time had gotten old real quick. Especially since she hadn't been able to see Tim at all due to the search.

Tim eventually had to head back to the manor, but they were both more content now that they'd had time together. And they were able to spend a lot more time together over the rest of the summer now that the vigilantes weren't constantly searching for her. They'd even made a deal with her as Pixie. If she would pass on information from time to time and continued to remain mostly neutral, they would leave her to do what she'd been doing. They wouldn't have been able to make her stop regardless, but having a deal was a relief for all of them.

She'd gone on multiple dates with Tim throughout the course of the summer, and when they had their birthday celebration this time they had it with his family, since they knew about her now. She turned 16 as Tim turned 17, and being able to celebrate with so many people was nice. Not that she didn't celebrate with the Rogues, but it was weird to celebrate with them when they'd made her birthday a holiday. Nettie was still weirded out by that. Jason had teased Pixie about it endlessly. Joke was on him, once he found out Pixie was actually Nettie he'd probably have a conniption. She was kind of looking forward to it.

At this point, she wasn't even actively hiding the fact that she was Pixie from the bats. Tim knew, Alfred probably knew, and Damian was definitely suspicious. It was kind of like a game to see when they'd all figure it out. She'd removed the veil of magic that had prevented the bats specifically from piecing things together, but they still didn't know she was Pixie. And only Tim knew she was Ladybug. They were definitely going to be kicking themselves over that one. Especially Bruce, who had met her as Nettie _and_ Ladybug less than a day apart.

By the time summer was over and it was time for her to leave, she was dreading her return to Paris. Adrien was likely to continue being a problem, and she had a feeling Lila was going to start acting up because of it. Tim was still offering to kidnap her, and since she'd gotten close to the rest of the batfam now that they knew about her Tim would now have accomplices if he _did_ decide to kidnap her. Her small stature and her time with the boys had made them a bit overprotective. Even though she'd beaten all of them in a spar at least once. They always seemed to forget she was fully capable of defending herself.

Nettie could only hope that the school year would pass quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is in the works!
> 
> So, turns out [Imshookandbi](/users/Imshookandbi) was inspired by chapter 5 of this fic, and they made a nice au. They did a great job, so feel free to check it out!


	14. Chapter 14

The school year started off normal. Or as normal as you can get when everyone in class suffers from emotional trauma. The only indication that something was off was that Adrien was _willingly_ spending time with Lila. Nettie was immediately suspicious. Nothing good could come of the two of them conspiring.

Everything remained relatively normal until after they came back from winter break. It was immediately clear that Lila and Adrien had struck some sort of deal, as Lila was beginning to break the deal she had with Nettie. There was no way Nettie was going to let that fly. If she was a pushover that let people wiggle their way out of a deal, she wouldn’t be the highly respected (and feared) Pixie of Gotham.

Lila would get her comeuppance.

For the time being Nettie would leave her alone, lure her into a false sense of security. She needed to know what deal she’d made with Adrien before she obliterated her. Normally she’d just send someone to gather the information for her, but she didn’t want to relocate any of her familiars and her fairy network was exclusive to Gotham.

Looked like she was going to be starting a new spy network for Paris. Take a page out of Ivy’s book and use the plants, as there weren't enough street kids for a proper network. Nobody suspected a plant unless they’d spent a significant amount of time in Gotham. She’d just need to summon a new familiar or two to help her out, then she could perform the spell to allow the plants to relay what they discovered.

She summoned the new familiar in the greenhouse, and was surprised to find that it was a small western dragon. She named him Morpheus. He had shiny metallic scales and seemed able to shift colors at will. He was also able to change his size, as she found out when he went from the size of a large cat to being able to fit in her palm. Very useful for camouflage.

He was cute. And he did end up being great at camouflage, often hiding himself as a necklace or bracelet on Nettie’s person. Morpheus would be an excellent information gatherer. Nobody would suspect a live dragon in Paris of all places. Especially not one so small.

With her new familiar summoned and settled under her willow tree, Nettie underwent the task of preparing the necessary spell. It was going to take a _lot_ of magic, which is why she summoned Morpheus first. He would act as her bodyguard until she recovered from the magic depletion.

As she sat in the circle she’d drawn in preparation she focused on what she wanted to happen, using her magic to forge connections between the plants, piecing the network together piece by piece. Plant by plant. It took her an hour to perform the spell. Magic continuously rolling off her in gentle waves as it traversed the city to connect the plants through magic.

By the time she finished she was exhausted. Magically and physically. Morpheus picked up on it and flew over to drape himself around her neck, scales settling into a golden color as he mimicked a necklace. His proximity would help her rebuild her magic reserves. She gave him a few grateful strokes before slipping into the shadows of the willow and reappearing in her bed, where she promptly fell asleep with Morpheus tucked under her chin.

She remained magically exhausted for the rest of the week, Morpheus always close by to protect her. She was already getting a good return on her investment. The plants saw a lot, and they were eager to share. Turns out Adrien had agreed to help Lila out of her deal with Nettie if she helped him out. He wanted Lila to isolate Nettie in any way possible and create situations for him to swoop in and help her. He’d already been working on convincing the rest of the class, the ones that were oblivious to his creepy behavior, to help him spend more time with her.

And it was working. All because of Alya’s stupid plots to get her to confess. She’d convinced half the class that Nettie was in love with Adrien through her convoluted schemes. Now it was coming back to bite Nettie in the ass.

She had been paired up with him far more often than was normal, and Lila had been making good on her end of the deal. She was starting to become persona non grata where those who still believed Lila were concerned. It was a bit impressive, honestly. Lila had managed to slowly make her a social outcast (though it didn’t extend past the classroom) and had created several situations for Adrien to swoop in and “save” her.

Which really meant Lila would trip her, push her, and as she gained confidence shove her down the stairs. Lila's sense of security had been firmly established, false though it was. Adrien took great pleasure in playing the hero, as he had in his days as Chat Noir.

It was a bit worrying. And according to the plants she was right to be worried. He’d recently gotten a bunch of things delivered to his house and upon opening them, had revealed that they were things vigilantes like her bats would use. Which was Not Good™️ because that meant all the training he was doing would’ve been geared towards him eventually becoming a hero. Though he was probably the only one who would see himself as such. The majority of Parisians held a dislike for Chat Noir due to how inefficient he was, and many held a grudge for his carefree actions getting them killed, however temporarily.

She knew he was definitely using his new equipment to help him stalk her. Nettie had felt eyes on her when there should've been none, and she ended up travelling via shadow a lot more often than before. She had a feeling that Adrien was starting to suspect something. According to her plants he'd taken to eyeing the shadows suspiciously whenever he turned a corner and found her to have disappeared. If he was catching on, he might start piecing things together, which wasn't something she could have happen. Worse still, he was semi-immune to the magic she used to obscure things about her due to his time as a miraculous wielder. The only positive to the situation was that he was hopeless at using magic himself, otherwise she would've had a _huge_ problem on her hands.

Maybe it was time for her to redeem her one free kidnapping. Tim and the boys would be more than happy to stage a kidnapping for her. Even more so when the person they were meant to kidnap was Nettie herself.

But if she didn’t deal with the problem before she left Paris for good in a few years, odds are Adrien would find some way to track her down. That was something Nettie wanted to avoid. She wasn’t quite sure how she was going to deal with him though. He was too public a figure to just disappear, he hadn’t done anything to warrant death just yet, and she wasn’t sure she could nail him with stalking charges. With how rich his family was there was no guarantee that he’d stay in jail if put there.

She’d have to think about it. Or just wait until he screwed up enough for her to bring in the big guns. Whether that be the bats or the Rogues would depend on his offenses. She just hoped he wouldn't screw up badly enough for her to warrant calling in _both._

His stalking attempts were becoming slightly more successful, though he still couldn’t reach her when she went to her greenhouse. He also seemed to believe his attempts to woo her were working, when they clearly weren’t. Just before the end of the school year he asked her out again. With witnesses.

“Marinette! Hey, um, would you maybe want to go out with me?” So he was going for sheepish instead of smug this time.

She shut him down real quick. “I’m sorry, but I have a boyfriend.” At her denial his face twisted up in rage.

He clenched his teeth and attempted to put on a a carefree expression, but his tone was clear. He was furious. “Oh, really? Who is it then? You’ve never mentioned him before.”

She glared at him. “My love life is none of your business and nobody’s ever asked before. As for who he is, he’s someone I know from my hometown. You don’t need to know more than that.”

“Girl! You got yourself a boyfriend and didn’t tell me? I thought you liked Adrien!”

“I didn’t like Adrien in that way, as I’ve told you before Alya. The only person I could ever see myself with was the person I’m currently dating.”

Lila took the opportunity to try and make Nettie look like a bad person. “I can’t believe you’re playing hard to get Marinette! How could you lie about having a boyfriend?”

“I’m not lying about him, but you likely won’t believe that considering your own catalogue of lies. I have to get going. See you whenever.” Nettie got out of there as quickly and casually as she could without looking like she was running, and slipped into the first available shadow, thwarting Adrien’s plans of following her.

She wasn’t even going to bother entering Gotham legally this time. Tim knew about her being Pixie, so he could help her make it appear as if she’d arrived legally if necessary. She wanted to be back in Gotham as soon as possible to leave Adrien with no leads to follow. She just had to wait a few more weeks before she could go back. Nettie could handle it. She'd dealt with worse before she'd defeated Hawkmoth.

Those few weeks went by at an agonizing pace. Adrien kept up his attempts to get closer to Nettie, though he remained mostly unsuccessful for the time being. This must've frustrated him because just a few days before the last day of school, she heard a thud on her balcony. A familiar thud. She immediately called for Trixx and wrapped herself in illusion magic before tapping into her plant network to confirm what she already knew. Adrien was on her balcony. In a leather bodysuit reminiscent of the costume he'd had as Chat Noir, which was obviously the point considering he had cat ears and a belt tail. He'd even gotten special contact lenses to gain the same cat-eye look typical to Plagg's wielders.

She definitely wasn't going to let this fly, but her first priority was getting herself to safety. Only once she was safely ensconced in her greenhouse did she really process everything. Adrien was becoming a way bigger problem than she'd anticipated. Apparently his mother was giving him a little _too_ much freedom if she was letting him set himself up as a hero again. If things continued escalating the way they were she was _definitely_ going to have the bats back her up. Whether it be in their rich-person capacity or established-vigilante capacity she wasn't sure, but she had a feeling they would be informed before the next summer.

Nettie had to be extremely careful those last couple days, constantly remaining vigilant unless she was in her greenhouse. Adrien was clearly frustrated that she'd managed to slip away from him at every turn, but he couldn't say anything about it without admitting he'd welcomed himself onto her balcony. And that would make him sound like a total creep. He was clearly hoping to corner her after school on their last day, but she evaded him, rushing back to the bakery to tell her parents her flight had gotten bumped up. They exchanged goodbyes before she hurried out and made her way to her greenhouse.

A few minutes later she was in her warehouse, Morpheus wrapped around her arm like a bracelet as she messaged Tim to let him known she was back. He showed up a few minutes later and drew her into a long hug. They hadn’t had time to meet up since she left the previous summer. It was really nice to be with someone that actually made her feel _safe_ after what she'd been dealing with in Paris.

They talked about everything they might’ve missed, Nettie leaving out the fact her class was plotting against her. Tim had obviously picked up on the fact that something was going on, but he knew that she wouldn't tell him unless she felt like she couldn't handle it alone. She introduced him to Morpheus, who was having fun showing off his camouflage skills to his familiar siblings. She had a feeling they’d get along swimmingly, if the way Morpheus had disguised himself as a ring on Tim’s finger was any indication.

Lots of potential for chaos there. Nettie allowed herself to let her guard down, her nerves at ease from finally being in the place she considered home. Tim being present only served to help her further ease her nerves. She had a feeling this summer was going to be a good one. Even if the school year that followed looked extremely bleak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is in the works!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We get to see some Tim POV!

Tim knew something was up as soon as Nettie told him she was in Gotham. She wasn’t normally back in the city for another couple days, but here she was, mere hours after her school had let out. Nettie typically liked to enter the city legally unless dealing with underworld business, so something had to be happening back in Paris that convinced her not to.

He’d have to investigate. Nettie wasn’t going to tell him anything until she thought she needed help or had already taken care of the problem. Tim was worried. As soon as he’d arrived he’d noticed how tense she was, and she seemed a bit more paranoid than normal. The way she practically melted into his arms told him she’d been dealing with whatever had been bothering her for a while, and had likely been facing it alone.

Well, mostly alone. She _did_ have Morpheus around to help her out now. He’d seen a lot of weird things in his time as a vigilante, but a tiny color and size changing dragon hadn’t been one of them. How she’d ended up with one as a familiar he’d never know. Nettie was just special like that.

Once they finished catching each other up to speed Tim suggested that they head to the manor to surprise the rest of the bats, Nettie happily agreeing as Morpheus took his place around her neck. So they took his bike back to the manor and looked for the rest of the boys, eventually finding them in one of the training rooms. He went to announce their presence when Nettie cut him off with a finger to his lips, silencing him as she carefully tugged Morpheus down from her neck.

She was obviously communicating with the little dragon, as he nodded his head once before taking flight, growing to the size of a house-cat. Nettie pointed at Jason, who was bickering with Damian as he cleaned his guns, and Morpheus took off, aiming straight for Jason. By the time Jason noticed something was up it was already too late. Morpheus had collided with his chest before springing off, jumping off Damian’s head to collide with Dick, who immediately started freaking out.

“Oh my god! Is that a dragon!?”

“It sure as hell _looks_ like one.” Jason stared at Morpheus warily.

Dick was caught up in a mixture of excitement and fear. “I didn’t know dragons were real! Where did it come from? Is it here to hurt us?”

Nettie burst into laughter as Dick stared at the small dragon in a mix of awe and horror, drawing the attention of the boys to her as Morpheus flew back over to them and settled into her shoulder. Tim joined in as he took in the surprise on all of their faces, none of them having expected to see Nettie for another day or so at least. Though part of their shock was probably from being assaulted by Morpheus. Being assaulted by a tiny dragon seemed likely to put just about anyone on edge.

The boys all stared at her before Jason broke the silence. “Nettie?”

“Hey Jay!”

He looked between her and Morpheus as though he expected to be attacked. “...Where’d you get the dragon?”

“Isn’t he cute? His name is Morpheus!” She held up the aforementioned dragon for them to examine.

“That doesn’t tell me where you got him Nettie.”

Nettie let Morpheus settle around her neck once again. “Oh! I summoned him, obviously. He _is_ a familiar after all.”

“...Familiar as in magic animal? Like Pixie’s?”

“Yeah...?”

“But if you summoned him _yourself_ that would make you...” Jason’s face showed dread as the realization settled in. “I’m a fucking dumbass.”

“Yeah, you kinda are.”

“Why is Jaybird a dumbass?”

“Tt. Think about it Grayson. Dupain-Cheng has arrived ahead of schedule with a familiar she claims to have summoned herself. Who do we know that can show up in Gotham whenever they want and has the power and ability to summon familiars?”

Dick thought about it for a second before he lit up with realization. Tim could’ve sworn he’d seen a lightbulb flicker on over his head as he stared a Nettie. “Pixie?! Nettie are you really Pixie?!”

“I mean, yeah." Nettie shrugged. "I’m surprised it took you guys so long to figure it out, honestly. I dropped the magic that kept the identities separate for you guys after I told Tim.”

Jason was staring at Nettie in mild horror as he was hit with multiple realizations. “Wait a minute. If _you’re_ Pixie that means you followed me into the League of Assassins! You set me up in the underworld and cursed the Joker! Fuck, Nettie, you’re basically Queen of the Underworld! They celebrate your birthday as a holiday!” He gestured wildly with his hands throughout his small rant.

“Hey! I wouldn’t have had to follow you into your assassin training if _you’d_ actually listened to me when I visited you in the hospital! And stop talking about the birthday thing! It weirds me out.”

“Wait a minute.” Dick looked between Nettie, Jason, and Damian for a second before realizing something else. “You were Damian’s first friend!”

“Shut up Grayson! No she wasn’t!”

Tim led Nettie away while they bickered; he’d have to wait until she was home to talk to them about his suspicions. At least they’d finally realized she was Pixie, even if she’d basically told them herself by having Morpheus cause chaos. They said hello to Bruce, and Nettie showed Morpheus off to him and Alfred as well.

They’d both figured out she was Pixie on their own.

Nettie had to leave just before they started patrol, so they said their goodbyes and watched as she slipped away, melting into the shadows. Nobody mentioned anything until they were in the cave. Tim had been dropping hints that he needed to speak with them about something, so as soon as they were in the cave he was questioned.

“What did you want to talk to us about replacement?”

He paused. “What makes you think I wanted to talk to you?”

“You weren’t exactly subtle Timmy.”

He hesitated for another second before finally admitting his suspicions. “...There’s something going on with Nettie. She’s here early, and technically illegally. Her school let out _today._ She’s always come the legal way for the summer. And that’s not all. When I visited her she was really tense, seemed more paranoid than normal. When we caught each other up there was something she clearly wasn’t telling me.”

Jason raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you gonna look into it?”

“I’m not sure. You know how Nettie is. If we try and take care of it for her before she tells us about it she’ll kick our asses. I’m just worried.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine baby bird. She’ll let us know when she’s ready.”

Tim just hoped that nothing happened by the time she _did_ decide to spill the beans.

* * *

Nettie was right about the summer being enjoyable. The reactions she’d received from the bats when they found out she was Pixie were hilarious, and spending time with Tim was amazing. He did have to work, as he was co-CEO, but she still found plenty of opportunities to see him. Whether she brought him lunch, dragged him out for impromptu dates, or snuck up on him during his patrols, she made sure to see him often.

She could tell that he was worried about her, but she wasn’t sure she should tell him yet. If she did he’d likely tell the others, and by the time she got back to Paris Adrien would either be dead, imprisoned, or scarred for life. She didn’t know which option she’d prefer. On second thought, all three might be nice. In stages, of course. She’d think about it later. She wasn’t about to let school drama mess up her summer.

As an unofficial ally of the bats, Pixie no longer had any reason to hide her presence in Gotham, which had made her work a lot easier. There were a few rather dramatic “confrontations” with the bats when she popped out of nowhere to drag a Rogue back in line, but it was more for the fun of it than anything else. She had a good laugh from the conspiracies that came about because of her interactions with the bats.Some of them were even true. Like when people speculated that she was in a relationship with Red Robin. Then there were the weird ones. Apparently some people were convinced she wasn’t human, but they couldn’t decide between alien or supernatural creature.

The speculations about her got the attention of many heroes outside of Gotham, only a few of which were given permission to visit. Which is how she ended up meeting some of Tim’s friends. She hadn’t even known they were visiting until Tim asked her to come over and meet them. She didn’t have anything better to do, so she slipped into the shadows and popped out in Wayne Manor. The shadow she came out of had been Tim’s, so when she appeared, his friends hadn’t noticed. They had been expecting her to come through the door, evidently. She smirked as she settled next to Tim on the couch.

The red-head was obviously getting impatient, even though Tim had only texted her about two minutes prior. “How far away does she live? If you tell me where I can just go get her.”

“Come on Bart, don’t be stupid. What if she doesn’t know about him yet?” The other boy, presumably Kon, hit him upside the head. 

Tim cut in before they could start arguing. “She’s already here.”

That got their attention, heads whipping around only to find Nettie on the couch next to Tim. “Hello!”

The boys looked at her in puzzlement. “How did you get here so fast?”

“Didn’t Tim tell you? I’m Pixie.” She wiggled her fingers a bit. “I’m magical.”

"I thought Pixie was a criminal?" Bart asked the question with confusion clear on his face.

"That is a false statement. I am a neutral party at best." That got her a bit of awkward silence.

Kon was the one to pick up the conversation. "Huh. So you're Tim's girlfriend? How'd you two even meet? As far as I know, he never leaves the house unless it's for work."

Tim and Nettie shared a glance before Tim glared at Kon and answered the question. "I resent that. I leave the house for more than just work. But to answer your question, we met almost ten years ago, when I was observing the vigilantes. We've been close ever since, though we only started dating last summer."

"And if she's Pixie then I'm guessing she, you know, knows?"

"I knew who the bats were before I even met Tim. Having Jason be plucked off the streets by the Bat and become adopted by Bruce Wayne was a bit of a tip off. When Tim was added to the roster it wasn't hard to piece together."

"Point taken. Oh! I'm Kon and this is Bart. Or as Tim's probably told you Superboy and Impulse."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng, but you can call me Nettie."

Things went pretty smoothly after that. Tim's friends were interesting, to say the least. They seemed like good friends, though, which she was happy about. It was nice that Tim had some people outside herself and his family that were loyal to him. They made casual conversation about past battles, and there were lots of questions about her magic, which she answered vaguely. If she told them straight-up she wouldn't be able to help Tim mess with them, and that wouldn't be any fun. Especially when they hadn't even met Morpheus yet. Nettie did have to leave eventually, as she had some underworld business to take care of, but meeting them had been nice. Hearing their reactions to watching her basically melt into the shadows once she'd bid them goodbye gave her a good laugh.

Nobody ever suspects the shadow-travel.

The rest of the summer went by far too quickly for Nettie's taste. She wasn't looking forward to heading back to Paris just yet. That and the bats were obviously planning something. Something that had to do with her. She knew it wasn't anything bad, if anything it would probably be a good thing for her, but she didn't like not knowing. Nettie was officially 17 now, and Tim 18. As soon as she was done with her last year of school she would be moving back to Gotham, and everybody was excited about it. What she wasn't excited about was the feeling that something was going to happen. She couldn't get a read on what exactly, or how bad it would be, but before winter break something was going to happen. Something that would push her to finally tell someone about what had been going on. Adrien was going to make a move.

She made sure not to show her unease around anyone that would be worried. So basically everyone she knew in Gotham. They were worried anyways, she could tell. Their worry was only proven when she was dragged on an outing with _all_ the bats a week before she had to leave. They'd taken her around to play laser tag, go mini-golfing, and ride go-karts before dragging her back to the manor for a "family movie night." Only problem was they couldn't agree on a movie, so they ended up watching quite a few. It had been really nice, especially when they let her tag along on patrol to beat up some bad guys. She'd stuck with Tim most of the time, but she was also seen with Jason and Dick. She'd donned her Pixie get-up to go out, so the Gothamites got a whole slew of new interactions to speculate over.

Once they were safely back in the cave, she pulled all of them into a hug, individually to prevent Damian from stabbing people, and thanked them. They all tried to play it off, but she could tell they were proud of having made her smile and laugh most of the day. Apparently she'd been worse at hiding her unease at returning to Paris than she thought.

They continued to hang out with her up until the day she had to leave again, promising that if she needed them to, they would stage a kidnapping for her. She would never admit that she was seriously considering their offer. She would still see them when she visited the city on Pixie business, but it wouldn't be nearly as often, so they exchanged goodbyes at the manor before she left for Paris once again. As soon as she was back in her greenhouse, she was bombarded by reports from her plant network. Adrien and Lila had been up to no good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, I just looked at the calendar and realized it's now officially been a month since I posted my first fic. How time flies.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next one is in the works!


	16. Chapter 16

According to her network, Adrien and Lila had been busy while she was off in Gotham. Lila had been attempting to slander Nettie’s reputation to ensure that nobody in class would dare to help her. Adrien, meanwhile, had been establishing himself as a Parisian vigilante. Based on the reports, however, it would probably be better for everyone if he stopped trying to help. He’d also managed to persuade her parents into telling him where she disappeared to over the summer. So he knew she was from and would be returning to Gotham.

That was _not_ a good thing. That was bad. That was really really bad. Normally just knowing she was in Gotham wouldn’t help him find her. Unfortunately for Nettie, she was starting to become a more public figure due to her relationship with Tim and the rest of the Waynes. There were no photos of her yet, for fear of the Wayne Lawyers, but it was only a matter of time before she was formally introduced to society.

Which meant it would soon be _very_ easy to find her. No wonder she’d been feeling like she was going to end up involving the boys.

After catching up on all the reports she was dreading going to school. Hell, she was just generally dreading being in Paris. Even more so when she got a brand new report that Adrien was staking out the bakery, waiting for her return. Which meant she was spending the night in the greenhouse. It was a good thing she’d set up a cozy little cot in there already.

She only returned to the bakery the next morning to get ready for school and greet her parents. After that she went to school, immediately noticing the distance the rest of the class was giving her. Based on the reluctance on many of their faces, Lila had threatened them to stay away from her when she failed to slander her reputation.

Lila tried to trip her when she passed by, only for her leg to mysteriously freeze up. Nobody would believe her when she later claimed Nettie’s bracelet had growled at her. Morpheus took his job as bodyguard very seriously. Especially since Tim had specifically asked him to watch over Nettie while he couldn’t.

Lila was going to have a hell of a time convincing people she was being tormented by a tiny dragon. Even with all the miraculous mishaps that had occurred, none of their classmates would believe that dragons were real. Let alone magical ones.

While Lila was easy to keep at bay, Adrien was not. He caused her endless problems. A couple weeks after school began, Adrien heard Lila talking about being tormented by Morpheus, and had immediately glanced at Nettie in suspicion. He was the only member of the class that could tell Lila was being genuine in that one instance. It was clear he probably believed it when he started giving Morpheus funny looks when he was disguised as jewelry.

If he hadn’t suspected Nettie of being magical before he certainly did now. While he couldn’t definitively prove it, he was definitely suspicious. Which made it that little bit harder to evade him.

Nettie managed, but she didn’t appreciate him increasing the difficulty. Even while avoiding him she managed to ruin his plans. Mainly any plans he had that involved Lila. Once Morpheus had begun terrorizing the class liar, Nettie had been able to use the paranoia he caused to destroy Lila’s credibility. A few words here, a couple tip-offs there, and one phone call to her most enthusiastic client later, Lila was drowning in lawsuits and cease-and-desists. Nobody got away with breaking a deal with the Pixie of Gotham. Now Lila would remember that.

The final nail in the coffin was Nettie delivering proof to the police that Lila _had_ been working with Hawkmoth willingly. When the police had shown up in the middle of class, Lila had denied it till she was blue in the face. Which is when the police listed the evidence against her.

“Wh- where did you get that?!” Lila shrieked upon seeing video evidence of her willingly being akumatized and making a deal with Hawkmoth. Her utter terror upon realizing footage of it existed was proof enough for the class to believe she was guilty.

“An anonymous source dropped it off at the station. It’s been examined by experts and proven to be genuine. Now, Lila Rossi, you are under arrest for working with a known terrorist.”

Lila backed away from the officers, desperately trying to find a way out of her predicament. “You- you can’t arrest me! My mother is a diplomat! I have immunity!”

“Your mother waived your immunity when she learned the extent of what you’d done. Apparently she received an extensive list of everything you’ve done since arriving in Paris. She’s agreed to let you be tried under Parisian law.” The matter-of-fact way the officer crushed Lila's only hope was amazing.

Lila glanced around frantically before her gaze locked into Nettie, who sported a subtle smirk. Morpheus was smirking as well from his place around his neck. The dawning realization on her face made it clear that she knew it was Nettie that had tipped everyone off. And Lila had brought it upon herself by breaking their deal. Her face settled into resignation as she was cuffed and dragged away by the officers. Once Nettie decided you’d crossed her, there was little chance you’d come back from it.

The look Adrien shot her as Lila was let away showed he knew it was most likely Nettie who’d tipped off the police. While he did seem frustrated at losing his ally, he seemed more impressed with how Nettie had managed to get rid of her. Which gave Nettie another reason to be wary of him. As if she didn’t have enough of those already.

Despite Lila’s arrest, Adrien didn’t try anything until halfway through November. He’d clearly been biding his time, trying to find out the best way to corner her. She had been expecting something to happen. The plants had warned her that he was up to something, but they didn’t know what.

She was in the park when he made his move. Adrien, in his knock-off Chat Noir get-up, had come out of nowhere _in broad daylight_ and snatched her off the ground. She’d fought him, but he’d injected her with something that made it difficult for her to move, not releasing her until they were in his room. He placed her on his couch and crouched in front of her, reaching out to caress her face as she leaned away.

“Oh don’t be like that Princess." He was practically purring in pleasure. "It’s taken me forever to get you alone.”

She glared at him with intense hatred. “There’s a reason for that you creep.”

“Come on Mari, just admit it. We’re meant to be. Things with that other guy will never work out. If there even _is_ another guy. I can give you everything you’d ever need, everything you could ever want. Why can’t you see that you belong with me?” The way he looked at her like he'd already won was infuriating.

“I’m _not_ a possession.” She seethed as she slapped his hand away.

He drew his hand back a bit, frowning at her. “I guess I’ll just have to make you see things my way,” he sighed. 

Her glare only intensified. “Oh hell no. This conversation is over. I’m leaving.”

“And how are you going to manage that?” She was gonna wipe that smug look off his face one way or another.

She smirked up at him. “With a little help from Morpheus.”

“Morpheus? What’s the Greek god of dreams have to do with-“ he cut off as Morpheus suddenly struck out, swiping his sharp claws across Adrien’s face before puffing out a breath of purple smoke. The smoke knocked Adrien unconscious, allowing Nettie and Morpheus to slip away from Adrien and into the shadows. By the time he woke up Nettie was safely locked away in her greenhouse being comforted by a horde of worried Kwami.

Adrien didn’t know it yet, but he’d just signed his death warrant.

“Nettie, are you _sure_ you’re going to be okay? Do you want us to curse him for you?” Tikki’s big blue eyes were worried as they looked up a Nettie.

“I’m okay Tikki. And hold off on cursing him for now, we need to make sure this wasn’t a one time thing.”

“But what if he tries something worse next time? I don’t want you to get hurt Nettie!”

“Oh, Tikki." She cooed at the worried Kwami, cupping Tikki in her hands. "I promise that I’m okay. If it makes you feel any better we’re going to tell Tim. After the stunt Adrien just pulled I think it’s time to tell him.”

Tikki looked visibly relieved to hear that, nodding as Nettie slowly made her way over to the door connected to her warehouse back in Gotham. She couldn’t be seen as Nettie, as she wasn’t supposed to be in the city, so she was going to approach him on patrol. Or at least, she’d like to. Whatever drug Adrien had injected her with was taking a greater toll on her than she’d thought.

She didn’t know what he’d given her or how long it was supposed to last, but by the time Tim would be on patrol Nettie was barely able to move around. There was no way she could go out and find him on patrol.

“Morpheus,” she called softly from her place on the bed. When he flew over to her from where he’d been playing with Chaos, she continued. “I need you to go find Tim for me, please. Lure him back as quick as you can, okay baby?”

Morpheus nodded his little head, nuzzling her hand in an attempt at comfort before disappearing out the window to track Tim down. She would’ve texted him but he didn’t check his phone during patrol, and she’d wanted her presence to be a surprise so she hadn’t done so earlier. Nettie could only hope he didn’t worry over her sending Morpheus to find him in her stead.

He arrived around 15 minutes later, following the small dragon through the window and stopping dead in his tracks when he saw Nettie on the bed, barely moving. He quickly removed his mask and rushed to her side, looking for signs of injury or illness. Upon finding none he gazed at her in concern. “Nettie? What’s the matter?”

“You aren’t going to be happy about it, but I’ve been drugged.”

He stiffened immediately, gaze sharpening in anger as he gathered Nettie into his arms, cradling her protectively against his chest. “Can you get us back to the cave so I can run some tests?”

She nodded weakly, directing him to walk into the shadow cast by the curtains, swiftly transporting them into the Batcave. Tim immediately rushed her down to the infirmary, settling her on one of the medical beds before getting to work. He drew her blood and put it through an automatic analysis before returning to her side.

Tim settled himself on the edge of the bed, looking down at Nettie with concern creasing his brow as he gently stroked her hair. “What happened?”

“...I have a stalker back in Paris. To make things worse, it’s not just any stalker, it’s the former Chat Noir. He’s been trying to reestablish himself as a hero recently, got a bunch of gadgets to use. I was in the park for a while, working on a project when he came by. He dragged me off the park bench and injected me with- _whatever,"_ here she gestured towards where her blood was being analyzed, "before dragging me back to his house. He thinks that we’re meant to be together. And he won’t take no for an answer. He had more planned for me, but Morpheus knocked him out and I got us out of there. I came straight here as soon as I was done reassuring the Kwami. You needed to know. If he was bold enough to do something like this, he might end up doing something else.”

“Who is he?” Though Tim's voice was casual, his eyes gave him away. They were alight with a cold fury.

“I’m not going to tell you that just yet. If you look into it you’ll probably find out, but I don’t want him dead just yet.”

“I wouldn’t _kill_ him. That’s Jason’s job.”

“Tim.” She gazed up at him pleadingly.

He caved. “Fine. I’ll leave it be for now, but I’m telling the others. And I want you to come back over your winter break.”

“Already planned on it.”

He gave her a look just as the machine beeped, prompting him to walk over and check on it. He read over the results quickly, printing the report before returning to Nettie. “So, it looks like he gave you some sort of tranquilizer, but it’s not one I’ve ever seen before. Seems like it was custom-made.”

“Fantastic. One more thing to worry about.” Her phone beeped with an alarm. She had to leave if she wanted to be in school on time. “Stupid time difference,” Nettie muttered as she forced herself into a sitting position. She opened her bag and pulled out a vial of shimmering liquid. She popped the cap and downed the contents, immediately feeling a million times better as she regained her ability to move.

Tim only looked mildly surprised. “...What was that?”

“Cleansing potion. Gets rid off all foreign substances in the bloodstream. I started to carry them around with me when stalker-guy dialed up the creep factor.”

“Why didn’t you just drink it in the first place?”

“So you could analyze my blood properly, obviously.”

He clearly didn't know what to say to that.

“Well, I should get going if I want to make it to school. See you later Timmy!” Nettie slipped off the medical bed and into the shadows before Tim could protest. A few minutes later she was back in Paris and off to school.

She could've just skipped for the day, but there was no way Nettie would let Adrien have the satisfaction of knowing he'd caused her to skip school. He obviously wasn't expecting her to attend. The utter disbelief and shock on his face when she walked into the classroom felt _amazing._ She gave absolutely no indication that anything was wrong, and that seemed to frustrate him. She was probably supposed to be unable to move for hours yet, and the fact that she was up and about when she shouldn't be obviously bugged him. Not that she cared. He wasn't going to get another opportunity to mess with her like that again if she could help it. 

Nettie took notice to how he was making an effort to hide his face. When she finally got a good look she couldn't stop her lips from tilting up into a smug smirk. She took great satisfaction at seeing his perfect face marred from when Morpheus slashed him. The four parallel claw marks cut across his face, starting just above his left eye, trailing over his nose and partway down his right cheek where they ended. Morpheus had gotten him pretty good. The cuts were scabbed over, and while his eye remained intact, he was clearly in pain. Served him right. That wasn't even the worst wound he was likely to end up with. He was lucky Morpheus hadn't been aiming for maximum damage. If he had been, Adrien wouldn't have much of a face left.

The only bad thing about the cuts was that now Adrien knew for a fact that Morpheus was real. That and people felt bad for him and were more likely to help him. Even though he'd very visibly floundered when asked for an explanation of the injury. The nature of the wound was obviously suspicious, but because Adrien was known throughout Paris as a Sunshine Child, nobody would ever think he'd gotten it from assaulting Nettie.

Regardless, Adrien was now slightly more wary of Nettie, and seemed to be taking a small break from stalking her to regroup. Which meant that Nettie didn't have to hide away as often, though she remained cautious. He could pop up at any time, anywhere. She took to travelling almost exclusively through shadow-travel so he wouldn't have opportunities to grab her and limited knowledge of her potential whereabouts. Nobody in Paris knew about her greenhouse, and the magical protections she'd lain made sure that it stayed that way.

The plant network she'd established remained invaluable. She constantly received updates on what Adrien was doing and where he was, allowing her to avoid him easier when he'd started following her again. It very clearly frustrated him that she was so well-informed, but she left no evidence of how she managed to evade him. By the time winter break rolled around he hadn't been able to get himself within ten feet of Nettie, and while he'd attempted to stake out the bakery a few more times, it was fruitless. She was back in Gotham less than five minutes after school let out.

It was time for her to bring the bats up to speed, more so than she had Tim when Adrien drugged her. They weren't going to be happy about it. Not at all. And Nettie got to be the one to keep them in line. Trying to keep four people from murdering Adrien was going to be an experience, but she couldn't have him dead just yet. She'd let them help her destroy him, but they would have to wait their turn. It wasn't the right time to actively go after him yet, but it would be soon. Adrien should've left well enough alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is in progress!


	17. Chapter 17

The first thing she did when she arrived back in Gotham for break was visit Tim at work. She hadn’t been sure when she would be back, so he wouldn’t know she was in the city. She’d missed him, even though it had only been a few weeks since they last saw each other. So she strutted into Wayne Tower to visit him, sporting a Red Robin hoodie over her dark jeans and carrying a box of pastries she’d made for them to share.

Nettie had been to the tower often enough that nobody questioned her presence as she headed for the private elevator that led to the highest levels of Wayne Enterprises. When she walked in Tim was sitting at his desk reading reports and looking half-dead. He barely glanced up when the door opened, doing a double take as he registered who exactly had barged into his office.

Nettie watched on in amusement as Tim scrambled to stand up and greet her, almost falling on his face in his haste. She laughed as she walked over to him, setting the pastries on the desk before moving to pull him into a quick kiss. He looked a bit dazed when she pulled back. “It’s nice to see you Tim, even when you look like a zombie.”

“I didn’t think you’d be back so early.”

She giggled a bit before pulling two travel mugs full of hot coffee out of her pocket dimension, handing the Ladybug themed one to Tim while she drank from the Red Robin one. Custom creations of hers, of course. Tim didn’t even hesitate to down half the mug in one go, immediately perking up and looking less like a zombie.

He looked at the mug suspiciously. “Did you do something to this? I feel like I shouldn’t be this refreshed.”

“I added an energy potion to yours. I figured you’d need it.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “...You know too much.”

“I know just enough.”

They stared at each other for a few moments before bursting into laughter. When they’d calmed down Tim had reclaimed his desk chair while Nettie sat on the edge of the desk in front of him, opening up the pastry box so they could eat together. They chatted while they ate, though they didn’t get into any of the big things. That was to be addressed in the safety of Wayne Manor.

“So how’d they take it?”

He glanced up from his pastry to look at her. “You mean how did my family take the news you have a stalker that drugged you?”

She nodded. “Yeah that.”

“I’m sure you can guess, but I guess I’ll save you the trouble. Jason and Damian immediately wanted to kill him. They were halfway to one of the jets before Alfred dragged them back. Dick was furious enough that I’m pretty sure he was willing to assist the other two. Bruce seemed to be reconsidering his no-killing rule and Alfred... well, Alfred seemed upset you had to deal with it. He’s also the one that said we should follow your lead on dealing with the brat.”

“I’ll have to thank him. Do you think he’d like a new recipe?” With bakers as adopted parents she had a lot of recipes at her disposal.

“It’s Alfred. Of course he would.”

Nettie nodded in agreement. Alfred loves new recipes. “So what do you think of my new hoodie?”

Tim examined her outfit more closely and almost choked on his pastry. His cheeks flushed a bright red as he took in the Red Robin hoodie Nettie had made. It was a blatant declaration of which Gotham vigilante was her favorite. Nettie took great pleasure in watching him splutter as he attempted to regain his wits.

“...It- it’s a really nice hoodie. I like it a lot.”

“Really?” She shot him a beaming smile, dazzling him momentarily as he nodded.

“The others are going to be jealous that you used your talents to make a Red Robin one and not any others though.” He seemed pretty happy about that.

“Well, that’s too bad. I only made this one. Red Robin’s my favorite you know?” She said it innocently enough, but upon closer examination mirth was visible in her eyes.

“Really? Well Pixie is my favorite. The way she handles all those Rogues and snarks at the bats is amazing.” It was Nettie’s turn to blush at that.

They were gearing up to continue their back-and-forth when Tim’s intercom chimed. When he answered it, he was reminded of a meeting he was expected to attend soon. They would deny pouting over having to separate if asked.

“Are any of the others here?”

“Not that I know of. Why? You wanna surprise them?”

“Nah, I’m going to avoid them until it’s time to talk about things. I’ll see you after you finish your patrol.” With that she hopped off the desk and gave Tim a quick kiss, disappearing into the shadows and reappearing in her warehouse. She took care of some minor business while she waited for it to be time to visit the bats. Which meant she looked over some reports from her fairies and worked on a couple commissions.

Mercury reminded her when it was time to leave, and she slipped away and into the cave not long after. When she arrived they were all waiting. She made her way to her seat between Tim and Jason, hyper aware of the eyes on her waiting for an explanation.

She turned to Tim first and foremost. “How much did you tell them?”

“The basics. Stalker guy obsessed with you. Has access to custom drugs, tried to potentially hurt you. The important things.”

“Okay. So. From the sound of it Tim neglected to mention that my stalker is the former Chat Noir. And that he’s trying to establish himself as a hero again even after his miraculous was taken due to his incompetence.”

Jason piped up with a question. “And how do you know this guy was Chat Noir, exactly? What, did he brag about it?”

“No, I know he was Noir because I’m magic. I sensed it as soon as I saw him after he’d wielded the miraculous for the first time. That and I’m the one who took the miraculous from him. It was my duty as the wielded of the ladybug and Guardian of the Miracle Box.” She said it in a straightforward manner, but the news had everyone but Tim looking at her in various degrees of shock.

“Hold up, _what?_ Do you mean to tell me that _in addition_ to wrangling Rogues and infiltrating an assassin organization you were were a _hero?”_ Jason was in total disbelief. His expression begged her to deny it.

“Yes? I thought you’d have noticed by now. Especially Bruce. He met me as me _and_ Ladybug in the span of a few days.” She knew they hadn't known. Nettie just liked to mess with them.

All eyes turned to Bruce, who merely looked at Nettie in exasperation. “You’ve been seen with Ladybug before, even without the fox hero around. I had no reason to suspect you aside from how you evaded akumatization.”

She shrugged. “Valid. Anyway, on to the stalker situation. So after I took his miraculous and stopped going around as Ladybug Noir shifted his obsession from me as Ladybug to me as Marinette. It’s pretty creepy. He tried to follow me everywhere and kept asking me out, even when I told him outright that there was only one person I would consider dating. He didn’t like that, so he started trying to ‘woo’ me. Whatever the hell that means. To accomplish this, he convinced a girl I’d made a deal with to help him. In exchange for her help he intended to help her break our deal. Now Jason’s probably told you this already, but I don’t take kindly to people that try and worm their way out of a deal.”

“No kidding. Rumor has it the last guy that tried to break a deal with you ended up rotting in a jail cell with a life sentence and no possibility of parole.”

She shot Jason a look that clearly conveyed he should stop talking if he wanted to live. He closed his mouth pretty quickly. “As I was saying, she was trying to break the deal we made. I had already given her a warning, so she received no mercy when I finally made my move. I pretended to let it happen so she’d have a false sense of security. Noir had her socially isolate me as much as possible, as well as create situations for him to ‘save’ me.” She made air-quotes as she rolled her eyes. “Didn’t work out too well. I still didn’t know what he was planning though, and my network didn’t extend to Paris, so I had to create a new network. Which is when I summoned Morpheus to help me out. Only problem is that there weren’t enough street kids in Paris for me to make a network out of them, so I resorted to plants instead. In Paris nobody has reason to suspect the plants.”

“...You’re a pretty scary lady, you know that Nettie?” Dick was looking at her warily, but Nettie took it as a compliment.

“Thank you. I aim to be.”

“...”

She clapped her hands to dispel the uncomfortable silence. “Anyways! After that I always knew when something would happen, but nothing big happened until after I returned from summer break. They tried and failed to slander my reputation, though it seems that they threatened my classmates to keep them from helping me. I discredited the liar by allowing Morpheus to mess with her. While the people of Paris have seen some crazy things, they weren't willing to believe she was being tormented by a tiny magical dragon. A tip-off to the police and her mother later and she was no longer my problem. No, now my only problem is stalker-boy. He's been trying to reestablish himself as a Parisian vigilante, but he hasn't been doing a great job. He's gotten his hands on a bunch of gadgets to help him out, which is how he made off with me in the middle of the day. Morpheus slashed his face for it, and I came here to allow Tim to analyze my blood. Now he's more wary of me, but he's still determined to be with me. I would just get rid of him, but he's a bit of a public figure and that wouldn't go down too well. I'm thinking about ruining him instead. Any chance you want to help with that?"

"Can't you just let me kill him?"

" _No,_ Jason. I need him alive for now."

"So you might let us kill him _eventually?"_ He asked hopefully.

"Don't push your luck."

With the bats finally informed, Nettie was able to enjoy her break. Being away from Paris meant she only had to worry about her Rogues causing trouble, and promising she'd celebrate the holidays with them ensured her break would be mostly peaceful. She ended up staying in the manor with the Waynes for most of the break instead of in her warehouse, which was nice. Tim was especially happy about it because it helped ease his worries over her safety. The warehouse was potentially the safest place in the city, but the manor was pretty well-equipped to keep them safe too. Especially when she got bored and started adding magical protections to it. She'd asked first, of course. Bruce was actually pretty thankful for it, as he liked to be prepared for just about anything.

The break was over far too quickly for all of their tastes. They wouldn't be apart for too long, however. Just before she had to leave they admitted to what they'd been planning the previous summer. Bruce had decided to sponsor her class so they could visit Gotham for their last field trip. Apparently they'd been planning on something like it for the Akuma Class for a while, and once they learned about Nettie they were more motivated to make it happen. Looked like she'd be returning in a couple months. With her whole class.

Damn meddling vigilantes.

At least it would give them a chance to help her take Adrien down. Once he was on their turf there was little chance of him surviving the trip wholly intact. Especially if he was stupid enough to catch the attention of any of her Rogues. She had yet to tell them because they would likely kill him no matter what punishment she promised. They took offenses to their 'queen' very seriously. She should've tried harder to hinder their new government, but it was too late for that now. Nettie was now resigned to the fact that she was seen as the official Queen of the Gotham Underworld. And they'd never asked for her input on it. At least she wasn't expected to actively rule. She didn't know what she'd do with them if she was.

She'd never been more glad that she and Bruce had come to an agreement over her business as Pixie. She liked the bats too much to fight them. Not that it would be much of a fight. As she mused over this, she stepped through the door that led to her greenhouse, arriving back in Paris once more. Soon she'd be back in Gotham where she belonged. Nettie looked forward to the chaos that would ensue, smiling to herself as she thought of how enthusiastic the bats were about destroying Adrien. As she headed back to the bakery with a slight mischievous smile on her face, she couldn't help but feel like things were looking up. Though she didn't know it, elsewhere in Paris a chill ran down a suddenly wary Adrien's spine as a sense of foreboding settled over him. He didn't know it yet, but his days as a free man were numbered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is in the works!


	18. Chapter 18

Being in Paris was bearable once Nettie was aware she’d be returning to Gotham again a month or so later. Bruce had arranged for her class to stay in Gotham for three months, acting as exchange students to Gotham Academy and getting to tour the city. They’d also be staying in a Wayne-owned hotel for the duration of their trip. At least, the rest of her class would be. Nettie was allowed to seek other accommodations. She was a native Gothamite after all. Nobody else in her class was informed about the trip until about two weeks before they were due to leave, and only one of them knew of Nettie’s connection to Gotham. Stalker-boy didn’t know how far her connections went though. He’d be in for a surprise or ten when they got to Gotham.

Her boys were _dying_ to meet him. And for once, she meant that metaphorically.

Adrien thankfully didn’t cause her any extra trouble while she awaited her return to Gotham. He did, however, continue to stalk her and play vigilante. You’d think he’d get the hint and stop when people started a petition for the police or Ladybug to take him out. She’d been considering it, but if she knocked him out prematurely her bats would pout for _months._ Likely after they’d broken into whatever prison he was put in to maim and/or kill him. Depended on who decided to go, really.

She wasn't looking to deal with a bunch of pouting vigilantes, so she let him play hero while she waited for their trip. Her time in Paris flew by once the announcement that they were going to Gotham was made. Before she knew it she was boarding a plane to Gotham, her ticket mysteriously upgraded to first class. She’d make sure to thank Tim later. He knew how much she disliked conventional means of travel.

At least Adrien wasn’t allowed to upgrade to first class. Something about his mother wanting him to share the experience with his friends. She _knew_ there was a reason she’d healed Mme. Agreste. Aside from her responsibility as Guardian to heal the effects of using a broken miraculous anyway.

Thanks to this, Nettie's flight to Gotham was peaceful. When they arrived in Gotham and got their bags after a brief stint through customs, Nettie was ready to head home. She approached their teacher, a nice woman who was ten times better than Bustier ever was, and informed her that she would be taking her leave.

As her teacher and the trip chaperone, she had been made aware of Nettie's special arrangements. “Alright. You’ll be meeting us the day after tomorrow at Wayne Tower, correct?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll see you there. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be heading out.” She turned towards the exit and had gotten no farther than two steps before the class noticed she was leaving.

“Wait- Marinette! Where are you going?” Though it was Alya that asked the question, the rest of the class was obviously curious as well.

“Hm? Oh! I have other accommodations.”

“Why?” The confusion was plain on their faces. They may be dense sometimes, but even _they_ knew that Gotham was one of, if not the most dangerous city in the world.

“I’m from Gotham. I have some family here that I’ll be staying with.” At the realization on their faces she once again turned toward the exit, eager to leave.

Until Adrien decided to call out to her. “Wouldn’t it be better to stay with the class? Since you’re from here you could help us out a lot.” While that made sense, there was no way she'd adhere to it.

“Oh, no. If I wasn’t allowed to stay with my Uncle Ed my parents wouldn’t have let me come at all." A lie, not that they could know that. "Gotham can be a pretty dangerous place for outsiders.” With that ominous statement Nettie made her getaway, heading outside to find Alfred waiting to pick her up. She slid into the car before any of her classmates could attempt to follow. “Your timing is impeccable as always.”

“Of course Miss Nettie. And if I may say, it’s good to have you back. Everyone is quite excited to see you again.” He glanced at her through the rearview mirror with a slight smile on his face.

She smiled back at him. “It’s good to be back.”

Their flight had arrived at night so they would have time to sleep off the jet-lag. Alfred had come to get her to avoid suspicion from her class, and would be taking her back to the manor for the night. While she loved her warehouse, she’d been convinced (manipulated) into staying in the manor for the duration of the trip. Overprotective bats on a guilt trip were surprisingly effective.

Everyone was out on patrol when they got back to Wayne Manor, so Nettie wandered into Tim’s room and settled into his bed while she waited. She didn’t have long to wait. Tim had been excused from patrol early so he could be with Nettie, and he returned shortly after Nettie had settled herself into his bed. When he wandered in and took in the sight of Nettie in his bed, wearing what appeared to be one of his shirts, he froze.

Nettie giggled, snapping him out of his shock. “Aren’t you gonna come greet me?”

“Of course. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I ignored my precious girlfriend?” Though he was blushing profusely, he did approach Nettie and lean down to give her a kiss. She deepened the kiss as she wound her arms around his shoulders and tugged him closer.

“I’ve missed you.” Nettie breathed once they separated for air.

He smiled as he rested his forehead against hers. “And I you.”

She smiled as she gently pushed him away. “Go get ready for bed. It’s rude to keep a lady waiting.”

He flushed once again as he followed her instruction. A few minutes later Tim was sliding into bed beside her, pulling her into his arms as he made himself comfortable. Once they were both comfortably settled into bed, cuddled up together as they reveled in their close proximity, they relaxed. They made idle chitchat as they slowly drifted off to sleep, secure in each other’s arms.

The next morning they woke up content and got ready for the day. It was a Sunday, so Tim didn’t have to work. They met up with the rest of the boys during breakfast and decided they wanted to do something fun. Which is when they remembered they’d tricked out a warehouse for them to race go-karts in when they were younger. And they'd still been paying for its upkeep.

So they dragged Dick, Jason, and Damian off to the warehouse with them and proceeded to race around for a few hours before heading to an arcade to play some games. Watching them work themselves into a competitive frenzy sure was something. Damian looked ready to break the machines whenever he lost, and Jason wasn’t much better. The last thing they did before heading back to the manor was okay a round of laser tag. Only problem was that there were five of them. And Jason and Nettie could arguably be said to have an unfair advantage. Which meant they had to be on opposing teams. They ended up having Nettie, Tim, and Damian on one team with Dick and Jason on the other.

When they asked Damian why he’d decided to team up with Nettie and Tim he’d proclaimed that he preferred to be on the winning side. And he was right. While the round had been intense, they had beaten Dick and Jason. All of them were trained in stealth, but Nettie had them beat what with being able to interact with shadows.

“You only won because you cheated!” So Jason may be a bit salty about the shadow thing.

“I prefer to think of it as utilizing my talents.”

“Cheater.” She knew he'd never admit to it, but he was pouting.

“Like you weren’t doing some questionable things yourself”.

He couldn't deny it. “...Point taken.”

By the time they got back to the manor it was just about time for patrol, which meant it was just about time for Nettie’s meeting with the Rogues. She’d ended up scheduling one a week or so before she was due back in Gotham. With her whole class coming with her, there were some things they needed to discuss.

While the bats went out to patrol, Pixie made her way to the underworld town hall, sitting herself in her throne with resignation as she awaited her Rogues. They showed up punctually, and she was able to start the meeting on time. "I've gathered you all here to discuss the next three months. After finding out about the Hawkmoth Situation, Bruce Wayne decided that he would sponsor a trip to Gotham for my entire class. Now, as you know, I'm not very close with my class. At all. While I might not be close with them, there's only one person in the class that I really have a problem with, and the others could potentially use a good scare. After being forced to reign in all negative emotions for a couple years, everybody's pretty fucked up emotionally."

"...Does that mean we can fuck with them and _not_ get in trouble? I'm itching for a shot at those brats. They've caused ya nothing but trouble sweetie." You could always rely on Harley to cause some chaos.

She thought about it for a moment before responding. "I may interfere if I feel you're taking things too far, but yes. For all intents and purposes, you may feel free to come after the class. Be mindful of the bats. While I can't be outed as Pixie, my past as a street kid should be sufficient to explain away why I do so well in hostage situations. Even with this, I would prefer you give me a warning before attacking. I don't want to have to give out explanations more than necessary. Use the _Pixie_ app to inform me of upcoming attacks so I can get away if I so choose and we're square. Keep in mind that you _will_ draw attention from the bats, and will more than likely end up in Arkham should you choose to proceed."

"What did you mean when you said you have a problem with _one_ person?" Of course Nygma would notice that. Just what she needed.

"That is unimportant at this moment in time. I'm taking measures to deal with it. If, however, he is foolish enough to get himself into trouble where you can see it, I only ask that you hold off on killing him. I have other things in mind." A shiver ran through the group at this. When Pixie dealt with someone, it wasn't very pretty.

Harley was the one to break the silence. "...That doesn't sound too good. Are we gonna hate 'im?"

"Oh, most definitely. That's why I've asked you to leave him alive. Any further questions on the matter?" She chose to ignore the fact that it seemed like they had several. "No? Then let's get move on to business." Talking about normal underworld business went quickly, and less than an hour after they'd gathered they were once again parting ways. Well, Nettie was parting ways. The Rogues were remaining behind to discuss things they could do to the class. That and how they were going to find the person Pixie had a problem with. Adrien was going to have a hell of a time surviving the trip once he caught their attention. And there was little doubt that he'd manage to gain their attention. Being in close-ish proximity to Nettie for three months in a foreign dangerous city would be too tempting an opportunity for him to pass up.

What followed when he _did_ give into temptation would be on him.

Nettie made her way back to the Batcave to await the return of her boyfriend and update Alfred on the situation with the Rogues. Which meant she told him they could expect some attacks from the Rogues soon and not much else. Not that she needed to give him all the information for him to form an accurate picture. Alfred's omniscience was on a whole different level. He probably knew exactly who was likely to be targeted and why, not that he would tell the bats until after at least one attack had already occurred. He was nice like that.

All the vigilantes were safely returned to the cave shortly after Nettie had arrived. She stole Tim as soon as he was finished debriefing and dragged him up to bed, ignoring his half-hearted protests. "We're sleeping whether you want to or not honey. If we're going to be dealing with my class tomorrow, we're going to need it. In exchange I'll make us some special coffee before we have to leave in the morning, okay?"

He loosed a long sigh before giving her a drawn out "fiiiiiine" in response to her question. Satisfied with that answer, Nettie prompted Tim to get ready for bed, doing the same herself before settling onto the mattress and tugging him down with her. The next morning she kept her word, making them both travel mugs of extra-strength coffee using the same mugs she'd brought when she visited for break. After another second of consideration she added a couple energy potions to their mugs. They were going to need the boost.

She thought about preparing a cup for Dick, who Bruce had roped into leading the tour, but decided against it. Giving Dick one of her coffees would be a nightmare. He was naturally full of energy and actually had a decent sleep schedule, so if she gave him a cup he'd drive them all up the walls with the energy boost. They ate breakfast with the rest of the family before Alfred drove them to Wayne Tower, where Nettie and Dick waited for her class in the lobby as Tim went up to his office to work. Tim would still end up having to interact with her class once they started school, but until then it was just Nettie and Dick against the Akuma Class.

What fun.

The class arrived on time, around half an hour after Nettie came in with Tim and Dick, and after badges were handed out the tour began. How Dick was able to retain his cheerful demeanor even in the face of a bunch of obviously bored kids was a mystery to Nettie. They only chimed in with half-hearted questions when prompted, and though a few of them seemed genuinely interested, the majority couldn't care less. Nettie had initially started out at the back of the group so Dick wouldn't cater his jokes to her, but upon seeing how disinterested her classmates were she migrated to the front. Just seeing Dick that tiny bit happier made having a front row seat to his corny jokes worth it.

Dick's sunshine smile only dropped once they were seated in a quiet corner of the cafeteria. This had gotten some questions from the rest of the class, but she played it off as having some questions for him in her position as class president. The only one that still seemed suspicious was Adrien, but he was always suspicious where she was concerned. He was dragged away by Alya and Nino before he could protest or move to follow though. Shortly after they'd been seated Tim wandered into the cafeteria and joined them in their corner. Nettie pulled out the lunch she'd packed for the three of them, successfully reviving Dick by waving one of his favorite pastries in front of his face.

Tim took in Dick's slouched posture and lack of sunshine smile. "That bad huh?"

"It's terrible Timmy! When Nettie told me they were likely to ignore me, I thought she was exaggerating, but only three of them seemed actively interested! And one of them was Nettie!" Yeah, that was pretty bad.

"I _told_ you you shouldn't have agreed to do the tour. I know you were curious, but was it really worth it?"

He pouted as he looked away from her, focusing on his portion of the food. "No..."

"That's what I thought." She turned away from Dick to focus on Tim. "How have things been for you?"

"Normal for the most part. I've received a couple complaints about your class, but other than that it's been business as usual."

"You ready to meet them?"

"I'm always ready. But in this instance I'm glad I won't have to meet them until you start attending Gotham Academy."

"I'm sure." They continued to banter, trying to help Dick lift his spirits about having to continue the tour after lunch. It seemed to be working if the amused expression on his face was any indication. Lunch ended too soon for all of their tastes, and Tim once again left them at the mercy of her classmates. The tour continued, though it seemed to drag on longer than it actually did with the class's lack of interest. They were all glad when the tour was officially concluded. The rest of the class left to go do some smaller tourist attractions while Nettie stayed behind so she could go home with Tim and Dick. While they were in the car on their way back to the manor, Nettie got an alert on her _Pixie_ app.

It was one of her Rogues giving her a warning. They were about to go after the class now that they were out of Wayne Tower. All they needed was for her to confirm that she wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.

Tim glanced over at her curiously, having heard the unfamiliar chime of the app. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing important," she said as she casually clicked confirm. 

It looked like her class was going to get an official welcome from one of Gotham's Rogues, and there was no way Nettie was going to miss it. She just hoped her boys wouldn't be too mad, and that she wouldn't need to interfere as Pixie. Though she had a feeling she was going to have to in some capacity. There was a possibility that there would be more than one of her Rogues involved, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it strange that I upload chapters with an average of 2k words every day? Multiple people commented on it yesterday, so I'm curious as to what you think.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Next chapter is in the works!


	19. Chapter 19

By the time they got back to the manor the class was already under attack. When they got the news the bats immediately suited up and headed out, leaving Nettie to calmly change into her Pixie attire and slip through he shadows. She ended up in a dark corner near where her class was cowering in fear.

Apparently the class had decided to visit the Wayne Botanical Gardens. They had the misfortune of arriving when Poison Ivy was present. And where you saw Ivy, you saw Harley.

There _was_ a reason for ivy to begin messing with them. Kim and Alix had gotten a bit too excited and accidentally stepped on a couple of the plants, which Ivy was _not_ happy about. As a result of the squashed plants and them recognizing the class as Pixie’s, they did what they’d been waiting for since Pixie had first complained about her classmates. They attacked.

As far as she could tell, the students had been subdued pretty easily. They were all trapped in Ivy’s vines, and currently being tormented by two out of three Gotham Sirens. The vines were thick, and many extra had grown with leaves large enough to support a human, so Nettie settled herself on a leaf about ten feet above the class to watch. Knowing those two, she’d end up having to step in.

When the bats finally arrived Ivy had started using her vines to fling the class around, never releasing them but certainly giving them a good scare. Adrien looked pissed from within the hold of the vine wrapped around him. Upon barging in, the vigilantes spread themselves out, Batman stepping up to talk to the two Rogues as his partners got into better positions. She threw on a quick glamour to avoid their notice for the time being as she settled in to watch.

“Ivy, Harley.” How his vocal chords had managed to hold up under the strain of the Batman Voice™️, she had no idea.

They barely spared him a glance. “Batsy.”

He glared at them. “Why are you attacking these students?”

Ivy glared right back at him. “They were killing the plants. You know how I feel about that. There are signs all over this place that _specifically_ state the plants aren’t to be touched except by me and the gardeners. It’s not my fault they ignored them.” She was right about the signs. At one point people had even debated over potentially signing a waiver when visiting the Gardens.

Harley tilted her head as she looked at the hanging class, many of them cursing in French. “Well, to be fair they _are_ foreigners Pam.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Let them go.” Ooh, the Bat was preparing for a fight!

“Fine. Just remember you asked for it.” With that, Ivy had her vines drop all the students from where they were hanging, most of them around ten feet or more off the ground. When the bats swooped in to grab them Ivy quickly snatched them back up and flung them around, aiming them at the bats before reclaiming them as ammo. Harley would hit the ones that scrambled to escape with her large mallet, knocking some of them temporarily unconscious.

Pixie finally revealed herself and drew everything to a halt when it looked like Ivy was ready to start feeding her bats _and_ her classmates to some of her carnivorous plants. She sighed as she removed the glamour and casually swung her legs over the edge of the leaf she was situated on. “Ivy! Harley! What did I say about the rules?”

Ivy immediately dropped everyone on the ground as Harley tried to hide her mallet behind her back. All eyes turned to her as she floated gently down from her leaf, landing in the arms of a mildly stunned Red Robin. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before slipping out of his hold and walking towards the two Rogues that had been causing trouble minutes before.

“Hey Pixie!" Harley chuckled nervously. "Didn’t know you were in the area! What rules are we breaking exactly?”

Pixie rolled her eyes at the attempted innocence. “The rules about major bodily harm. You _know_ being flung around at high speeds and getting hit in the head with a giant mallet can cause some serious damage.” She gestured towards where Kim was trying and failing to stand after having been hit in the head with Harley's mallet, all of them watching as he fell flat on his face.

Ivy spared them a dispassionate glance before attempting to defend herself. “They weren’t going _that_ fast.”

She crossed her arms as she stared them down. “Then why could I hear an impact when they hit one of the bats over here?” They wisely chose to remain silent as Pixie turned to Batman and his brood. “Sorry about this. Can’t guarantee it won’t happen again if the class isn’t careful, but I’ll stress the basic rules again. Is this enough to put them away?” Considering they'd been using the students as ammo and the occasional human shield, she could guess the answer.

He gave her a _look._ One that clearly said ‘why would you even ask if you already know the answer’ before cuffing the two Sirens and having Nightwing help him drag them back to Arkham. Pixie turned to look at the shocked and disoriented class, glancing over them with a critical gaze before turning and looking toward her birds instead.

Tim sighed as he put away his staff, turning his attention to her. “You got here before us, didn’t you.”

She scoffed. “Of course I did. When don't I?”

Jason seemed a bit frustrated at this, as always. “And you didn’t help out _why?”_

“You know the deal. I’m a neutral party Hood.”

“Yeah, yeah. So you’ve said.” He glanced over at her class, all of them more or less standing by this point. “You guys should be more careful. You never know what kind of crazy you’ll offend here.” His gaze lingered on Adrien, or more specifically the scars that marred his face.

Tim cut in before Jason could approach Adrien like he clearly wanted to. “We should be getting back.”

Her expression shifted into a playful pout as she glanced up at Tim. “So soon? What a shame. Guess I’ll have to find you later Red!” She floated a few feet off the ground before manifesting shimmery fairy wings made of her magic and flying out of the gardens. If she’d used the shadows Adrien would’ve been suspicious.

“...Did she just have fairy wings?” Jason was staring after her in disbelief. You'd think after all the time he'd spent with her as Pixie he'd be used to seeing strange things.

Tim sighed. “We’ll talk about it later Hood. Now let’s get back to base.” He led the way out before Jason could retort, and before long they were speeding back to the cave on their motorcycles.

Nettie was already dressed in her normal clothes by the time the birds got back, sitting patiently at the table while she awaited their questions. She could guess what the first one would be.

“When the fuck did you get fairy wings?”

Annd there it was. What eloquent delivery. “Nice to see you too Jay. They weren’t real wings, obviously. But I couldn’t just slip into the shadows with stalker-boy watching. I had to make an exit somehow.” She raised her hands and shrugged in a 'what can you do?' manner, causing Jason to sigh in exasperation.

_”Could_ you get real wings?” Tim seemed very intrigued by the possibility.

Nettie thought about it for a minute before eventually just shrugging. “Maybe? I don’t think they’d work properly though. Not unless I modified my bone density or put a shit ton of magic into them.”

Tim considered this with a hum. “Interesting.” He was clearly gearing up to ask more questions about it, maybe ask to run some tests, but was cut off by Jason.

“Hey! Don’t you two geek out on me. Watching you be lovey dovey is torture enough.”

“Tt. For once, Todd has a point.” Damian scowled more deeply than usual as he wandered off. Presumably to go sharpen his swords or play with his pets.

Nettie frowned at Jason. “How rude. I can’t believe you two don’t appreciate the wonders of science when you work with the world’s greatest detective.” She gestured towards all the scientific equipment scattered around the Batcave to emphasize her point.

Jason just scoffed. “It gets old after the fourth unnecessarily long and complicated word.”

She locked eyes with Tim, both of them proceeding to roll their eyes at Jason, who was a little freaked out over how in sync they seemed to be. “You just don’t appreciate science.”

Jason sighed in exasperation. “Shouldn’t you two be plotting or something?”

She turned to face Tim in consideration. “You got anything better to do?”

“Nope. I’ve got the night off for once. You?”

“I’m free. Wanna go plot together?” She held out a hand for him to take.

“Sure. Plotting with you is always a great time.” He gripped the offered hand and allowed her to start guiding him away.

Nettie called out to Jason over her shoulder as they reached the exit. “Bye Jay! Hope you’re ready to be on the receiving end of our plotting!”

Though she couldn't see it, she could imagine how he'd paled at her parting words. “Wait- get back here! I don’t want to have to deal with whatever you nutcases come up with!” He went to go after them, but they were already gone, Nettie having transported them away to make sure he wouldn't be able to catch up.

While it had mostly been a joke, they _did_ end up plotting a bit. It was always best to have multiple plans when going against people that tend to be unpredictable. They also might have planned a few pranks against Jason. He'd learn to appreciate science and the power of Tim and Nettie's combined plotting skills. They had contingency plans for their contingency plans. Jason never should've mentioned plotting around the two of them.

The rest of the week Nettie continued to meet up with her class everyday as they toured various places around Gotham. As a native, she'd already seen just about everything the city had to offer, but she didn't want to leave the teacher alone to deal with the class all by herself, so she attended the tours. None of the other Rogues attacked after the Harley and Ivy, though that was more because they were biding their time. The class was going to be in Gotham for three whole months after all. She was just glad that she'd managed to convince Tim that he should attend Gotham Academy with her so she wouldn't be suffering alone. Well, she wouldn't have been _completely_ alone, Damian was a student there too. They wouldn't see each other too often due to the age difference, but he would be there.

Most of her class wasn't very good at speaking English, so they didn't seem to be looking forward to going to an American school. The only people in the class that were fluent or almost fluent, besides Nettie, were Adrien and Chloe. The rest of the class not so much. Bruce had arranged for a translator to be available to help out so Nettie wouldn't be stuck helping, which was nice. She was actually looking forward to attending the school, as she'd be spending a lot of time with Tim who was _more_ than happy to help her plot against Adrien. Figuring out he was Chat Noir was easy after seeing the marks Morpheus left behind when he slashed his face. Adrien had yet to cause trouble in Gotham, but it seemed like he was gearing up for it.

She'd sent Morpheus into the hotel her class was staying in to scout things out, and he'd reported that Adrien had brought his Chat Noir gear. As soon as she was made aware that he would potentially try to play at being a vigilante in _Gotham,_ the one place where he should under no circumstances attempt such a thing, she'd briefed her people. All the fairies were made aware that if a boy in a leather catsuit approached them they were to report it and hide away, while the Rogues were warned that an incompetent vigilante with a hero complex was in town. She'd also let the bats know, and to say Bruce wasn't happy would be an understatement.

The class had asked her endless questions about the vigilantes and the Rogues, especially Pixie once they'd seen her in person. Explaining that Pixie was a completely neutral party assumed to have some sort of deal in place with the batclan was interesting. For a group of people that'd survived attacks by an emotional terrorist, they were surprisingly excited about all the chaos Gotham had to offer. They seemed intrigued by all the recurring Rogues, who managed to cause trouble even without having powers at their disposal. Some of them had likened Pixie's magical powers to that of the miraculous, which Nettie had to shut down real quick to avoid suspicion. She distracted them with conspiracy theories instead. Maybe she should've waited to expose Lila. At least if she was present the class would be occupied with _something,_ even if it was just a bunch of shiny lies.

Too late to do anything about it now. She'd just have to be a little cautious in her outings as Pixie, especially with her shadow travel. No need to give Adrien any clues. Having him act fairly normal was weird, as was his decent behavior, but one look at the glint in his eye when he glanced at her kept her wary. Maybe she'd get him some mental help after she destroyed him. With Gabriel as a father, he probably needed it. She'd contemplated just taking him out as soon as they got to Gotham, but that wouldn't be any fun for her. She needed solid proof of his behavior to be able to take him to court, and while she didn't like him she didn't just want him _dead._ Once upon a time she'd considered him a friend and partner, so she had no wish for him to die just yet. After losing Jason all those years ago she had a strong distaste for unnecessary death.

As she headed back to Wayne Manor after finishing up the last tour her class had been scheduled for for the week, Nettie pondered over what her Rogues could be planning. The lack of attacks had made her suspicious, especially when she received the news that Ivy and Harley had busted out of Arkham only three days after being put away. She shrugged to herself as she entered the manor, heading into one of the training rooms to spend time with the birds. As long as they stuck to her rules, it wasn't her problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has Nettie come across as a pushover lately? I got a comment that said the bamf tag has been basically obsolete since she defeated Hawkmoth, which was like eight chapters ago. I thought she still seemed like a badass? I _am_ the author though, so maybe I just can't get a good read on what I've written? Let me know you think.
> 
> Other than that, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next one is in the works, and I appreciate that some of you actually read my author's notes.


	20. Chapter 20

The weekend before Nettie and Tim were to begin their time at Gotham Academy passed by quickly, with nothing particularly interesting or concerning happening. There had been no sightings of Chat Noir yet, and Adrien hadn’t been seen leaving the hotel without another student with him. The class was... _adjusting_ to the dangers of Gotham. It was a bit weird how excited they were to see more of the Rogues and vigilantes.

Maybe they just missed the chaos from the constant akuma attacks.

Nettie couldn’t judge them for it due to how her business revolved around the underworld. She had regular dealings with questionable people and Rogues, along with the vigilantes. Then there was the fact that she was actually _dating_ a member of the batclan. Yeah, she had no room to judge.

The first day at Gotham Academy Alfred dropped them off. Tim guided them to the classroom they would be in for the remainder of her class’s three month trip. She’d managed to get a one-sided hug out of Damian before he stalked off to his class, scowling furiously as students parted for him. She didn’t dare to call him adorable when there was a possibility he’d hear it.

They were the last two to arrive, her teacher having brought the class early so they could make sure nobody would get lost. This meant that when they walked into the room together, Tim’s arm draped lightly around her waist, all eyes snapped to them. She could almost _feel_ the weight of the questions her classmates were dying to ask. Especially once everyone registered that she’d turned Adrien down once on the basis she had a boyfriend. And they hadn’t believed her about it. The glare Adrien directed Tim’s way was surprisingly hateful. A lesser man might’ve cowered under it, but Tim brushed it off like it was nothing. Knowing his nightly activities he’d probably been subjected to worse.

The teacher was the first one to say anything. “Ah! There you are Mr. Drake! And you must be Ms. Dupain-Cheng, the class president, correct?”

She gave him a smile as she went to confirm. “Yes, that’s me. And you must be our temporary teacher Mr. Gray.”

He returned the smile as he nodded. “Yes, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Now if you would please take your seats, we’ll begin the class.” He gestured to an empty table, which Nettie and Tim claimed as he began his welcome speech.

The class was split between trying to pay attention and staring at them. Well, the Gotham students knew better than to stare at a Wayne so it was only her class that kept glancing at them. It was getting on her nerves a bit, so she cast a simple spell that would keep their eyes from straying, ensuring they would _actually_ pay attention to the teacher. And it was a good thing she did, because shortly after she cast the spell, they were asked to go around the room and introduce themselves.

Things went smoothly until it was Tim and Nettie’s turn. All of the Gotham students already knew who the two of them were, as Tim was a Wayne and Nettie was his girlfriend. Nettie was quick to get her introduction over with and settle back into her seat as Tim stood to introduce himself.

"As you heard from Mr. Gray, my name is Tim Drake-Wayne. I'm here on behalf of my father, the sponsor of the trip. We want to make sure things go smoothly during your stay, so I'm here to help Nettie," here he gestured to her, "manage things and translate when necessary." He sat back down, ignoring the confusion on her class's faces. They'd never heard her referred to as Nettie before.

Mr. Gray clapped his hands together to regain the class's attention. "Now that introductions are out of the way, are there any questions about what's going to happen or about Gotham in general?"

There were a few questions about the city and the school, but not many. Most of the questions were about the Rogues and vigilantes, and a good portion of those were about Pixie. As almost nothing was known about Pixie apart from her influence on the Rogues, along with how she seemed to be proficient in magic, most of their questions went unanswered. She and Tim had both taken note of how Adrien looked particularly interested in Pixie's magical prowess. Considering she knew for a fact that he'd tried to learn magic before and failed miserably, it was no surprise that it interested him. Ever since he'd guessed that Nettie had some sort of magic he'd been trying to find ways to get past her defenses, including hiring some other mages. No mage would work with him. As Pixie she'd become quite prominent in the magical community, and she'd put a ban on working with Adrien Agreste. He'd attempted to get around it by going under a different name, but no dice. She'd used her magic to put a 'do not help' sign on him. Anybody that had decided to ignore it was quickly sabotaged by none other than Pixie herself, and word had spread through the community that if you _did_ help the kid, she'd come after you no matter what.

It was a great deterrent.

Adrien had been endlessly frustrated by his fruitless attempts, though she had noticed that he'd only contacted European mages. Now that they were in America he just might try again. She looked forward to shutting him down. There was no way for her to know precisely what he thinking, but she could guess. Chat Noir would soon be hitting the streets of Gotham, and when he did, he'd have the vigilantes _and_ the Rogues gunning for him. She looked forward to watching the struggle. Nettie couldn't help but wonder who would stumble across the cat first. Either way it wouldn't end well for him. 

Mr. Gray drew questions to a close and began class, lecturing and giving them small in-class assignments to complete with their table partner. They continued in this vein until it was finally time for lunch, and upon reaching the cafeteria they were joined by Damian. He still seemed a bit mad about the hug, but when Nettie pulled out the lunch she'd packed for the three of them it his scowl lessened considerably. He'd never admit it, but Nettie knew he liked her food. Had ever since they'd met during her infiltration of the League of Assassins. They were sitting at a table in one of the corners of the cafeteria, near an exit, and were left alone due to the Wayne status of two of them. At least, they were left alone by the Gothamites. Nettie's classmates ignored the way everyone was politely leaving them to their lunch, descending upon them like vultures as soon as they'd gotten their food from the cafeteria.

Damian's glare kept them from sitting at the table, but they ignored the fact that they were obviously unwanted and looked to Nettie to begin their interrogation. "Marinette! Why didn't you tell us you knew the Waynes?!" Of course that's what they would want to know. Lila had claimed to know the Waynes, once upon a time. Now she was rotting in some juvenile detention center.

"Tt. Dupain-Cheng is under no obligation to tell you anything you nuisances."

"Damian, don't be rude." He gave her a small glare at her half-hearted scolding before turning back to his lunch.

Tim tilted his head as he examined the group gathered in front of them, all of them standing straighter at his analytical stare. "He does have a point though Nettie."

Nettie sighed in exasperation. "Tim, let me handle this, okay?" He acquiesced with a nod, placing a kiss on her cheek before turning to focus on the coffee she'd brought for the two of them. Nettie turned to her classmates to answer their original question. The sooner she got it over with the sooner they'd leave. Hopefully. "I never told you because you never asked. You never even knew I was from Gotham. Plus, you didn't believe me when I told you I had a boyfriend, and yet here he sits." She gestured to Tim, who nodded as he reached out to pull her into a side-hug.

They floundered a bit at that. "But! We thought you were just playing hard to get! And you never told us you were from Gotham, you just said you were from a large city in New Jersey-" She cut them off there. There was no reason to play the blame game over something so ridiculous.

"I never said anything because I didn't want to deal with any potential biases. Better to be vague than hated over something I had no control over."

They paused for a moment before Alya continued. "Alright, that's fair. But how on earth did you end up dating a Wayne?!" And they were right back to where they started.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I met him before he became a Wayne, like nine years ago, and we've been close ever since. He asked me out two summers ago." Nettie could tell they had more questions, but she could also tell that Damian was getting increasingly more annoyed. As was evident by his homicidal aura. "Now if you would please leave so we can eat our lunch in peace, that'd be great. If you don't I can't promise that the Ice Prince over here won't just straight-up murder you, so I'd hop to it if I were you." They took one glance at Damian and his murderous glare and took off. That was one useful skill he had there.

"Are all the people you go to school with so incompetent?"

"Not all of them. It's mainly my classmates that have that problem."

With the departure of her class, they were able to eat in peace. Damian made sure to let them know he was disgusted by how affectionate they were, and he still seemed mad about having to deal with her classmates, but his scowl had diminished slightly. Lunch was over pretty quickly and they headed back to their respective classes, where they spent the remainder of the school day. Being who they were, the material the class was going through was too easy for them, and it got boring pretty quickly. They weren't getting anything out of being there aside from being able to keep an eye on her class, which they could do through other means if necessary. They passed the time by exploring the school whenever they finished their work, eventually deciding that they'd work on being excused from classwork with Bruce once they got back to the manor.

Alfred picked them up outside the school, and they were gone before the class could attempt to corner her for further questioning. When they arrived at the manor they went up to Bruce and explained their predicament, and though he was wary of what they'd do with the free time being exempt from classwork would give them, he eventually caved. A call to the school and a couple tests later, Tim and Nettie were granted free run of the school. They would still have to check in with the teacher and help out with the class, but otherwise they were free to do what they wanted. Once they got the news that they would be exempt from classwork due to their advanced curriculum, they got to plotting. The school wasn't going to take itself over after all.

Their plotting paid off. By the end of the next day they'd been firmly established as the rulers of the school. Nobody could pinpoint exactly how they'd done it, but everyone knew it'd happened. They had managed to take over several departments as well as the Student Council, and nobody even questioned it. By the end of that first week they'd overhauled a few of the departments, balanced the Student Council's budget, and had gained an almost cult-like following throughout the school. Damian complained about it endlessly because he had to hear his friend Maps gush about them now, but if they hadn't taken over they would've ended up doing something potentially worse in their boredom. At least they were being productive and not destructive.

Her classmates had been mildly shocked, but they'd seen her accomplish many feats, so they eventually just shrugged it off. All except Adrien, who was endlessly annoyed at hearing all about how cute a couple Nettie and Tim were. He'd been trying to get her alone with no success. She was always either with Tim or Damian, and when they weren't around she was impossible to find. His frustration was obviously growing, and she anticipated that by the end of the weekend Chat Noir would make his first appearance. As always, she ended up being correct.

Shortly after the bats began their patrol on that Friday, Nyx reported to Nettie that Adrien had snuck out of the hotel. In his Chat Noir garb. She'd been curious as to what he was going to do, so she slipped into one of her Pixie outfits, one of her favorites. She wore an ivory fitted top with a sweetheart neckline. The sleeves were off-the-shoulder and made of a flowy sheer material in her favorite shade of gold, extending down just past her elbows where they cinched in. From there down her arms were wrapped in strips of ivory cloth that bled into gold on the edges, ending at her wrist where she wore simple gloves made of the same cloth. Her shorts were golden, with pockets and some decorative buttons, ivory peeking out at the edge of the shorts. The same sheer golden material attached to the bottom of the shorts near the inner thigh on each leg, flowing down to her knees where it cinched in, held in place by her boots, though it attached in a way that left part of her thighs uncovered. The rest of her legs were covered by ivory boots made to mimic the look of the wrapped cloth on her forearms. She wore a domino mask of ivory with gold edges, and her hair was in two braids that fell to her waist.

Her guns were in her thigh holsters, which rested on the part of her leg the sheer material didn't cover. The holsters attached to the belt around her waist, and there were various magical and technological things stored in the pouches of the belt. She had two daggers resting horizontally along her back that she'd summoned using her knowledge of the miraculous, and she could summon more weapons if necessary.

When worn with her typical glamour of glowy golden eyes and pointed ears, it served to make her look like, well, a pixie. Especially when she used her magic to make it appear as though she had shimmery fairy wings. It had the added benefit of making Tim blush a bright red whenever she wore it. Once she was ready she slipped into the shadows and popped out at Chat Noir's last known location. He hadn't gotten far before being spotted by Nightwing and Red Hood, who were currently chasing him. She used some magic to distract him, causing him to run into a wall as the birds to caught up to him.

"Well, well. Look what we have here. I thought it was the cat's job to chase the bird, but it appears it may be the other way around." She tutted from where she had perched herself, sitting on top of the wall Noir had just run into face first. "What are you doing here in Gotham, little kitty? From what I've heard, you're a long way from home."

Noir glanced up at her, glaring slightly at how she was blocking his escape route. "I'm here on business."

She tilted her head as she stared down at him from her place on the wall. "Oh? I haven't heard of anything going down in the underworld that would interest a cat like yourself. So what are you _really_ here for?" She rested a finger on her chin in false thought. "Could it have something to do with a certain baker's daughter, perhaps?"

"How did you-" he glared up at her in shock, but he _did_ admit what she'd been expecting. "Yes. I've been trying to hire a magic user to help me track her, but nobody in Europe will work with me. How much would I need to pay you for your services?"

Her gaze flicked away from him in disinterest. "Why would I help you when I'm the one that put you on the ban list?"

"What?" He barely got the word out through his gritted teeth, anger lighting up his toxic green eyes.

"As a prominent member of the magical community I've made sure nobody will work with you. I don't take too kindly to stalkers, and you'll find that Nettie is precious to a lot of people in Gotham, our vigilantes included. Isn't that right boys?" She shot Dick and Jason a wink as Tim landed next to her as Red Robin. She could just make out where Damian was hidden in the shadows.

Tim glanced at her and she could _just barely_ see his blush peeking out from the edge of his mask. "I would say that's accurate. She has helped us out quite a bit, after all."

"You know it Pixie." Jason nodded to her as he cocked his guns, pointing them at Chat Noir.

"If I were you, I wouldn't go around the town as Chat Noir. Batman doesn't take too kindly to unauthorized vigilantes operating in his city. Especially ones that use their tools to stalk people. My Rogues aren't much better. Harley and Ivy do so _hate_ people that can't take no for an answer." She stood from her spot on the wall, planting a kiss on Tim's cheek before she floated into the air. "I'll let you boys deal with this. I have other business to attend to." With that, she flew away, ducking into the shadows once she was safely out of sight.

Nyx later reported that they had fought just after she left, each of the birds landing hits on the cat. Jason and Tim had taken great pleasure in punching him in the face and whacking him with a staff, respectively. Damian had apparently sliced his cheek just under his left eye. While Adrien had put up a fight, he hadn't managed to get many, if any, hits on her birds. He'd ended up retreating soon after Damian sliced his face, not realizing that they all knew who he was and where he was going. The only reason he'd been able to escape is because they had let him.

Adrien walked into class on Monday with a new scar on his face and a slight limp in his step. He couldn't explain how he'd gotten either of them, and he seemed extremely frustrated. If this was how he came out of a mild confrontation with the birds, all of them having gone easy on him, he was going to have a tougher time surviving than she'd initially thought. Especially once he gained the courage to try something on her where a Rogue could see. And he would eventually have the misfortune of trying something on her where a Rogue could see. Only question was which Rogue would see it and what they would do about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next one is in progress, as usual.


	21. Chapter 21

Nothing happened for another couple weeks after the confrontation between Chat Noir and the birds. Nettie and Tim continued to fix problems the school wasn’t aware it had while periodically checking in with the class they were supposed to be part of. Adrien had been growing increasingly frustrated at how he could never manage to get Nettie alone, though he had yet to go out as Chat Noir again.

Having his ass kicked by the birds had made him more wary to go out at night, but he _was_ going out at night, though it was only as Adrien. He would disguise himself as best he was able and had been looking for information about just how powerful Pixie was, though nobody he approached would tell him anything. Her fairies would trip him up before taking off and reporting the incident, and her familiars had begun messing with him whenever they saw him. Chaos, especially, enjoyed going after Adrien when he came across him at night. Being magical themselves, her familiars were more than capable of avoiding detection, so while they ran him in circles with illusions, Adrien was never able to find out who had it out for him.

When Adrien finally went out as Chat Noir again, he was more careful. Nyx shadowed him the whole time, and reported that he'd apparently been trying to get a feel for the city. His excursion was cut short when he stumbled upon Nettie while she was out with Nygma. While Adrien didn't recognize Nygma as the Riddler, he did recognize Nettie, as she wasn't Pixie at the time. Adrien, taking this as a great stroke of luck, swung down and grabbed Nettie roughly by the arm, failing to notice that while he wasn't carrying his signature cane, Nygma _was_ carrying various other weapons. So when Nettie was pulled away from him, Nygma didn't hesitate to whip out a gun and shoot the cat. Adrien immediately released her, stumbling back into a wall as he clutched at his now bleeding shoulder with a hiss.

Nygma walked forward calmly to loom over Adrien, tone dangerous as Adrien pressed himself further against the wall. "You should count yourself lucky, Mr. Agreste. If my daughter didn't have a distaste for death that bullet would've gone straight through your skull." He ignored the glare Adrien directed at him as Nettie approached and looked down at the injured cat.

"I've warned you countless times, Chat. You shouldn't have ignored my warnings. Now that we're in Gotham, there's little chance of you escaping the consequences unscathed. This is just the beginning."

He glared up at her stubbornly. "We _belong_ together."

"What a lost cause you've become. Don't say I didn't warn you." Nettie lightly gripped Nygma's arm, the both of them walking into a nearby alley where Nettie pulled them through the shadows and into their meeting room. She sighed as she threw up her Pixie glamour. "I'll call for an emergency meeting. Now that he's gone and got your attention, I should explain the situation."

A few hours later everyone was gathered in the meeting room, Nettie settled upon her throne as they took their seats and looked to her for an explanation.

“While I was in Paris, I managed to acquire a stalker.” The room erupted into chaos most of the Rogues plotting a murder. They seemed to be arguing over who got to kill him. “Alright! Settle down! I know you aren’t happy about it but I need him alive. Nobody’s allowed to kill him. Torment? Yes. Murder? No. While his behavior has been deplorable, he was my friend once upon a time, and you know of my distaste for unnecessary death.”

“This is the guy." Nygma pulled up a picture of Adrien, one that showed the scar Morpheus had left behind.

Harley tilted and squinted at the image. “Hey, Pam! Isn’t that one of those brats we tossed around in the Gardens?”

“It looks like it. Those scars are rather distinctive.”

“Those would be courtesy of Morpheus. He may have drugged me once before.”

“I hate him already.”

“I figured you would. It's being dealt with.”

"You know this kid is going on the List now right?" The List Harley was referring to was just that: a list. The only thing special about it was that it was a list often checked by most of the underworld, and it was used to keep track of people that had gone against Pixie in some way. If you were caught associating with someone on the List, you would be added to the list. People on the list most often ended up stuck in some prison. A few ended up dead. It depended on the person and their offense, but that was generally how things went.

"I thought as much. Just remember to mark him as 'keep alive.' I'll be checking to make sure you do, and my familiars will be watching, so make sure you adhere to the rules."

They grumbled about it, but she knew they would comply. She left before they began plotting against Adrien, heading back to the manor to meet up with the bats after their patrol. When they got back she explained the situation, and warned that there would likely be an increase in Rogue activity. Bruce wasn't too happy about that, but there was nothing any of them could do about it unless they offered up Adrien on a silver platter. Due to his no-killing rule, Bruce would never allow that, so he had no choice but to prepare for attacks as best he could.

Adrien was missing from school the next day. Rumor had it he'd been mugged at gunpoint and shot, but Nettie and Tim knew the truth. School remained peaceful while Adrien was recovering from his bullet wound, though he seemed to be suffering from some terribly bad luck. He'd been caught up in five Rogue attacks in as many weeks, and was singled out in each and every one of them. Each encounter left him with further injuries, and though Pixie had stepped in a few times to make sure they didn't kill him, he still ended up bruised, battered, and cut. He couldn't even say he didn't know why it was happening. Whenever someone lamented his bad luck where he could hear it, Nettie could always see the fake smile he summoned to lie to everyone, glancing her way each time.

Tim had told her that they'd run into him a few more times when he was out as Chat Noir, and each encounter resulted in a new confrontation. Adrien was determined to get Nettie to be his, one way or another, and he was growing more desperate. What he didn't seem to realize was that his desperation was making him careless. He was leaving clues behind, forgetting to make sure there were no witnesses to his attempts, not checking for cameras. Every time he tried something, even if it was just a plot for a potential attempt, was documented by Nettie and the batfam. They were collecting all the evidence they could ever need to prove his obsession with Nettie, and by the end of the class's first month in Gotham, they had more than enough evidence to prove their point.

The class had been caught up in a couple more Rogue attacks, which they had been excited by. Nettie had only had to interfere in one of them, which was nice. She was glad that her Rogues were adhering to the rules, even if they _were_ collectively plotting against Adrien. She chose to ignore it in favor of helping Tim with their overhaul of Gotham Academy. Nettie could do without the cult following they'd somehow amassed, but they weren't doing anything harmful, so she let it slide. They'd even taken to giving Adrien the roundabout when he was looking for her. She was pretty sure the entirety of the Student Council had joined the cult, but she couldn't prove it. They were happy to let their new overlords do pretty much whatever they wanted.

Which had led to Nettie suggesting they set up some events for everybody to participate in. Planning would keep her busy, and her classmates were becoming a bit too invested in the Rogues for Nettie's tastes. They could use a good distraction. She and Tim had discussed it and had eventually planned out two events to take place over the course of the class's last two months in Gotham. The first event would be a game night. Games of all kinds would be set up around the Academy's campus for students to play at their leisure, and the auditorium would be used as a makeshift theatre. The second event had already been in the midst of planning, things were just shifted a bit as Tim and Nettie took over. It would be a school dance. The concept of a normal dance was boring, however, so they had taken measures to change it. While it would serve the purpose of being a school dance, instead of it being a boring thing with everybody dressed up really nice, they had decided it would instead be a costume party. One specifically themed around the various heroes and villains of the world.

Nettie had figured it would be a good way for her class to get their Rogue obsession out of their systems. Plus, she'd get to make the bats dress up in costumes because there was no way she wouldn't drag them into it. It was also the perfect opportunity for the Rogues to slip in and do whatever they were planning to do to Adrien. If she gave them the opportunity she wouldn't end up blindsided, which was very important. It also ensured that she'd be able to keep track of the chaos and its aftermath.

The first event was held halfway through their second month in Gotham, and it was a big hit. The Detective Club had set up a real life game of clue to generate interest in their club and the services it offered, which had intrigued many students. There were some life-sized board games on the grounds, movies playing in the auditorium, the pool was open for free swimming, and there were some contests going on in various places. One of which was a fencing competition that had started when Adrien bragged about being a great fencer. In Damian's earshot. He wasn't bragging by the time Damian had finished with him. There was also a laser tag tournament going on somewhere. Who knew they made inflatable laser tag arenas? Nettie certainly hadn't, but when she'd found out about it she'd convinced Tim that they should rent one. Then she invited Jason and Dick to attend the school's game night, specifically so Jason could get worked up playing laser tag. Nobody was surprised when he and Dick won the tournament. They wouldn't have won if Nettie and Tim had participated, but as two of the event organizers they were busy making sure everything ran smoothly. They still had fun on occasion, however.

They had been the referees for Damian's match with Adrien, and had been very entertained by the match. They also got roped into being the judges of a few other contests, and they had to mediate a couple times. If anybody noticed all the Student Council members following them around wearing merchandise they'd gotten from the unofficial cult a few students had started in their honor, nobody said anything. Well, they didn't say anything besides 'where did you get that merch?' which was met with the answer that the cult was running a booth somewhere selling it. Nettie and Tim were doing their best to ignore it, but neither of them could help the sighs of exasperation they shared upon discovering Dick and Jason had bought enough merch for the whole family. They'd even gotten some stuff for Damian's precious pets to wear.

Maybe the cult thing was getting a bit out of hand, but there wasn't anything they could do about it. It had already spread too far, past the bounds of the school. A week or so later Nettie and Tim were goofing around during his patrol and had accidentally stumbled into a meeting between Harley, Ivy, and Nygma. All three of them were wearing merch from the cult. All of them had frozen, the Rogues at the interruption and the couple from the shock of seeing Rogues wearing cult merch. Tim and Nettie had shared a look and slowly backed out of the meeting, resolving not to think about it. Not thinking about it was extremely difficult when they saw at least one person wearing something from the cult every time they went out. The only positive to the situation was that it frustrated Adrien to no end. Even her classmates had picked up some merch from the cult. They knew there was no escape when they saw Damian of all people wearing some of the merch.

Resistance appeared to be futile, but there was no way Nettie and Tim were actually going to acknowledge it. Acknowledging it would make it too real, and they didn't want people to think they endorsed a cult. They instead turned their focus to further planning for the school dance. The Student Council had practically begged them to let them hold a competition for a King and Queen, and they reluctantly complied even though they could guess at the results. They were beginning to think they shouldn't have been so efficient in their takeover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another day, another chapter. This one fought me a bit, so I hope you liked it! Next one is in the works!


	22. Chapter 22

The last couple weeks leading up to the school dance were quiet. Adrien had kept mostly to himself, aside from the stalking. The Rogues hadn’t caused any trouble, too busy preparing for whatever they’d planned to occur on the night of the dance. There had even been a slight decrease in petty crime, though there could’ve been any number of reasons for that.

The only notable thing that occurred was Adrien getting his ass kicked by Catwoman, who was _not_ happy to see someone else running around Gotham in a leather catsuit. She'd evidently wounded Adrien's ego because Chat Noir wasn't seen for like a week after his encounter with Selina. That or she'd really done a number on him. Probably both, considering how Adrien had limped into the classroom with his head down. It had taken a lot of effort for Nettie not to burst into laughter at the sight of him. Good thing Tim wasn't in the room or he'd have laughed for sure.

Nettie had roped all of the birds into attending, and had made arrangements for costumes, refusing to let them know until the day of the dance. When the day finally came and she handed out the costumes, they realized why she hadn’t involved them. Nettie was wearing a Red Robin costume, and had made Tim a Pixie costume. With the rumors of Pixie and Red Robin being a thing she hadn’t been able to resist. She hadn’t wanted Tim to be too uncomfortable, however, so she’d modeled the costume after one of her more rarely seen conservative Pixie outfits, one that was black and gold instead of the typical ivory.

The costume consisted of a loose black hooded tank over a black long-sleeve undershirt, loose black pants that cinched at the ankles, and some black combat boots. The lining of the hood was done in gold, and the hooded tank had an ombré effect that transitioned into gold at the hem, the tank itself falling to Tim’s upper thigh. There were little gold details on the combat boots, and she’d provided a black domino mask with gold edges. To finish off the look she cast her Pixie glamour on him, making his eyes appear a glowy gold color and his ears appear pointed.

She wore an exact replica of his Red Robin costume, and she’d gotten or made the rest of the boys various costumes. She’d made Damian a Batman costume, Dick a new version of his original Robin suit that _didn’t_ murder her eyes, and Jason got to wear his Red Hood costume but with a new dark red leather jacket and no helmet. She would’ve done something else for him but due to the fact there was definitely gong to be a Rogue attack, she figured it’d be best to let him keep his normal weapons. He wasn’t going to do much other than watch the chaos of the dance anyways.

She’d supplied everyone with extra weapons and the boys had made sure to stash their _actual_ costumes in a private part of the venue they’d rented for the event. Dick and Jason were allowed to be there as long as they acted as chaperones, which they were fine with, and if she had to guess Bruce would be lurking nearby waiting for the Rogues to attack. They were the first to arrive, aside from the members of the student council, all of which were working the event.

As more people arrived there were more heroes and villains represented. A few of her classmates had gone for Parisian heroes, Adrien himself coming as Chat Noir but not wearing the mask. The rest of her class were wearing costumes of the various Gotham Rogues, as Nettie had expected due to their obsession with them. Everyone loved Nettie and Tim’s costumes, though only the Gothamites pegged them as couples costumes. Dick was having a blast in his Robin costume, and Damian seemed to be at least kind of enjoying the dance.

Nettie stole at least one dance from each bird, though she danced with Tim the most. Adrien had tried to ask her to dance but was thwarted by the cult, and no others would dare ask her to dance. It was actually pretty fun, and the Rogues didn’t interrupt until a while after the King and Queen were announced. Surprise surprise, they won. They were given matching golden crowns that looked suspiciously real, and when the announcement was over and they were free to resume their activities, Nettie pulled out an extra crown. She’d had it made especially for Damian as a visual representation of his status as Ice Prince. He wasn’t happy about it, but he _did_ wear it, however begrudgingly. Dick made sure to take pictures of the three of them in their crowns. Nettie was pretty sure he had a secret scrapbook filled with pictures of family members. He seemed like the type.

When the Rogues finally busted in, they did it as a group. The doors blew off and when the dust settled there they were, all her Rogues walking into the venue as people started evacuating. She noticed Dick, Jason, and Damian slip out of the room and dragged Tim with her so they could do the same. When they got there the boys were already changing, and Tim quickly followed suit as Nettie used a simple spell to change her clothes, removing the glamour she'd placed on Tim and putting up her own. She wound up wearing the same outfit the costume she'd made for Tim was based off, so they essentially just traded costumes, which Jason found particularly hilarious.

When they were all ready they split up, Nettie disappearing into the shadows so she could reappear on one of the chandeliers as the boys went to rendezvous with the Bat. The first thing she took note of upon appearing in the room was how the only people left were the Student Council members, a few people wearing cult merch, and the entirety of her class. Everybody was restrained by Ivy's vines, though Adrien had once again been singled out. They had separated him from the group and tied him up in the center of the room, the Rogues standing around him as their various goons watched the other captives.

Harley tilted her head as she examined Adrien. "Looks like we bagged ourselves an annoying little cat, but what should we do with it?"

Ivy chimed in with an idea the Rogues had been toying with for a while, according to Mercury. "Maybe we should neuter him, might kill his drive to keep going after poor little Nettie."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Adrien bit out through gritted teeth.

"Yeah ya do, kitty. Those scars of yours are rather distinctive, 'specially once you've met Morpheus. Feisty little dragon, that one. We pegged you a mile away."

Adrien continued to defend himself, though the class was starting to give him funny looks. "I haven't done anything to her!"

"Those scars say otherwise, as does the person herself." Penguin gestured to the scars with the sharp point of his umbrella, clearly itching to give him a few more.

Adrien practically growled as panic began to make its way over his face. "Whatever she's told you is a _lie."_

Nygma shut that down real quick. "Unlike you, our dearest Nettie does not tell lies. Why do you think she destroyed that liar you were using as a pawn?"

"If she would just admit that we're meant to be I wouldn't _have_ to do anything!" There were gasps around the room at the admission that he'd done something. The classmates that had dismissed her concerns looked horrified, and a few of them, along with the entirety of the Student Council and the people in cult merch, looked downright murderous. 

"What are they talking about Adrien? Did you do something to Marinette?" Nino was wide-eyed as he stared at Adrien, clearly hoping he'd deny it.

The cat's eyes widened as he realized what he'd said. "N-no! Nino you have to believe me! I'd never do anything to Marinette!"

Nino's eyes fell to the four parallel claw marks that marred Adrien's formerly perfect model face. "Then how did you get those scars, dude?"

"I can answer that," Pixie said as she moved to hang upside-down from the chandelier, clothes and hair staying perfectly in place as though she was right-side up. She looked down at them, glancing over everyone present in the room, completely ignoring Adrien's glare as her gaze settled on Nino. "He drugged her. Snatched her from the park and dragged her back to his house. When she wanted to leave and he moved to prevent her, Morpheus here," she held out a hand, Morpheus detaching from her wrist and growing to the size of a cat as he hung from her arm, "clawed his face. You might recognize him as a piece of jewelry Nettie often wore. I lent him to her when she returned to Paris because she was afraid Adrien, who'd been stalking her for some time, would try something. And he did."

Everyone turned to Adrien, who was staring up at Pixie in anger, though when he noticed his classmates were all looking at him, he attempted to pull an innocent expression. "I- I would _never_ do something like that! She's lying!" His tone was pleading as he begged Nino and the others to believe him.

"How dare you accuse Pixie of lying! Why would anyone believe some random French kid over Pixie? Our Pixie here is the only reason you're still _alive_ you little brat! If she hadn't set a no-kill rule on you you'd of been dead months ago!"

"Now, now Harley. There's no use wasting time explaining things to a lost cause. Now, how about we hear all about his fears?" With that, Scarecrow injected Adrien with fear toxin, and he immediately started thrashing about as sweat beaded on his skin. Adrien began mumbling in French, though it seemed he was speaking to an illusionary version of Ladybug, begging her not to leave, to let him keep his miraculous. As he continued to beg and plead to Ladybug, the Rogues grew more enraged. It was clear he'd shifted his obsession from one version of Nettie to another, and they weren't happy about it.

Ivy hit him with the antidote and barely waited for him to regain a semblance of lucidity before she slapped him, seething. "So the only reason you're pursuing Nettie is because she reminds you of your precious _Ladybug?"_

He couldn't deny it, and before he could even get a word out, he was released from his binds by a lone batarang and tossed into a fight. The Rouges took turns fighting him, and he was hopelessly outmatched each time. Pixie had shouted a quick "remember the rules!" before settling in to watch. She couldn't keep track of everything they did to Adrien, but she knew that Penguin had stabbed him somewhere non-lethal, Dent had shot him in his good shoulder, Nygma had cut him with his cane. She wasn't sure how much damage he'd end up with, though it would definitely be less if he stopped fighting against them. While he was busy fighting with the Rogues, though the fight was _extremely_ one-sided, the bats had swooped in and taken out the goons, freeing the captives and leading them out of the building. She swung down from the chandelier when the bats came back in to deal with the Rogues, and soon enough, the Rogues had ditched Adrien in favor of fighting with and attempting to escape the bats.

She watched disinterestedly as they fought, moving out of the way occasionally as she kept track of the fights. All movement ceased when Adrien stabbed her. Well, he tried to anyways. The knife had barely gotten within 2 inches of her before Adrien was violently thrown across the room, slamming up against the wall and passing out from the force. "Well, I think we're about done here, don't you? I'm not in the mood for anymore fighting, so why don't you let the nice vigilantes take you back to Arkham while I deal with this mess."

At the dangerous tones in her voice, the Rogues had no choice but to comply. Nettie walked up to stand over Adrien's unconscious form and used a spell to force him awake, keeping him in place with her magic as she loomed over him dangerously. If the way he tried to shift away from her was any indication, he knew he'd messed up with that last stunt of his. "I was going to go easy on you, you know? I never imagined you'd be stupid enough to go after the one person standing between you and certain death, but I see you've managed to prove me wrong. I would curse you for this infraction, but I think I'll leave that to your precious Kwami instead. They've been itching to curse you since you first abused your powers, but the Guardian always kept them at bay. I can't wait to see what they come up with." He paled as she sealed his fate, trying to fight against her magic so that he might speak, but she was too powerful.

She left him bound there as she went to stand with Tim, who slid a comforting arm around her waist as she leaned against him. Adrien remained bound until the paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital, and only once he was safely out of sight did Nettie let out a sigh as she dragged Tim with her into the shadows, bringing him back to the manor with her and leaving him in the Batcave as she went to deliver the Kwami the good news. They were ecstatic to finally be able to curse Adrien. She had no idea _how_ they had cursed him, but she knew they'd cursed him somehow.

Adrien's time as a free man was nearly at an end. While he would hate it, he should consider himself lucky he was leaving with all his limbs still attached. If Nettie had wanted or allowed it, her Rogues would've tortured him to insanity before finally killing him, and there would never be a trace of his body. Fortunately for Adrien and those close to him, Nettie was merciful and still held a sliver of goodwill from their past friendship. Now all that was left was to have him tried, convicted and sent away once they got back to Paris. They'd gathered more than enough evidence to put him away, and they were scheduled to fly back to Paris in less than a week. His failure to heed her warnings had sealed the deal, and soon he would cease to be Nettie's problem. Nobody that Nettie went after was ever seen again, after all. She was too thorough for that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot of people seemed to like the cult stuff. I don't know if I should be worried about how enthusiastic you guys are about it or about how this is the second time I've written the two of them with a cult. On one hand I'm the one who wrote it, but on the other you guys want to join it. I don't know how to feel about this. At least you guys seem to be enjoying the fic, so I've got that going for me.
> 
> Hope you liked the chapter! Next one is in the works!


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! Kinda epilogue-ish but it is what it is.

When Nettie returned to Paris, she wasn’t returning alone as she normally would. This time, Tim had decided to come with her to ensure things went smoothly. That and he didn’t want Nettie to have to deal with it alone. She would've been able to handle it, but she would never say no to being able to spend more time with him, especially since they had only been able to see each other over the summer for years.

With Tim coming back with her, there was no reason for her to take the plane with her classmates. She’d easily gotten permission from her teacher and parents to make other arrangements, by which she meant magic door between Paris and Gotham. They didn’t need to know that, however, and assumed she’d be flying back with Tim, when she was really just going to drag Tim back with her through her connecting door.

They went through the door shortly after her class’s flight left, instantly ending up in her greenhouse where she allowed the Kwami to roam freely. Tim seemed amazed at how the whole place radiated a sense of protection. She’d told him about the greenhouse before, of course. If she hadn’t told him about her safe pace he really _would_ have ended up kidnapping her. After she’d shown Tim all the wonders of her magical greenhouse they’d gathered up the Kwami and headed to the Wayne family’s Parisian apartment.

Nobody expected them to be in the city until shortly after her class returned, so they spent that time together in the apartment. They played games together, chatted about the evidence they’d collected, and plotted a bit. Nettie made them food when they got hungry, and now that they were away from Gotham they let themselves lament over how they’d gained a cult. _On accident._

They didn’t ask for a cult, and they didn’t know what to do with one. Damian would occasionally tell them about things the cult had done to try and make them address it, but they’d always just made a note and continued to ignore it. For the most part, the cult didn’t do much other than hush about how amazing the two of them were. Occasionally, however, the cult would host... events. Sometimes it was charity work, sometimes it was recruiting new members, and sometimes it was attempts at magical rituals. They had no idea what the rituals were meant to accomplish, but from the rumors they’d heard the goal was to make the two of them immortal.

Yeah, maybe it was best if they just continued to ignore it. 

When the class finally arrived back in Paris, Nettie had to go back to the bakery to see her parents. She also figured she should tell them that once she'd graduated she was planning on moving back to Gotham. They probably could guess that that's what she was going to do, but it would be best for her to confirm. They were supportive of her decision, and didn't fight her on it at all. After her second summer spent back in Gotham she's pretty sure that they realized they'd adopted someone that hadn't actually needed to be adopted. While they hadn't been the most present parents, they'd done their best, and that was all Nettie could really ask for. If they'd actually been a constant presence she might not have been able to slip away as much as she'd needed to take care of things.

Once her parents were informed of her plans to return to Gotham, it was time for Nettie to nail Adrien in court. Tim helped her set things up with the assistance of the Wayne Lawyers, and soon enough, Adrien was on trial. With the amount of evidence they'd managed to gather against him, it was no surprise that Nettie won. Adrien was to be sent to a mental institution and would remain there for a time before being sent to prison. Nettie had pulled some strings to make it so that he'd never see the outside of those prison walls. The freedom Adrien had so coveted with the downfall of his father and possession of the black cat miraculous was now permanently out of his reach. A simple curse ensured it would stay that way. Adrien wouldn't be able to bother her again, and he would suffer with the loss of his freedom. He'd be going to the same place he used to put criminals away, and since he'd been outed as Chat Noir, he was going to have to watch his back.

When he was taken away he'd resisted, screaming curses at Nettie and Tim, promising revenge he'd never be able to obtain. His behavior during the trial had barely been civil, and his insistence that he'd done nothing wrong, that he was just trying to make Nettie realize that they were meant to be, didn't endear him to the jury at all. His mother had gotten him some pretty good lawyers, but when you've got the Wayne family backing you, the opponent might as well not even turn up to court. Adrien was finished before he even set foot in the courtroom for the first time.

With Adrien finally locked away, the remainder of the school year went by extremely quickly. Her class was too ashamed to confront her about anything, especially since Adrien had neglected to deny it when the Rogues stated that he'd been using Lila as a pawn, which meant he'd known she was a liar and never told them. A good portion of the class hadn't believed Lila after Nettie had cast doubt on the validity of her claims, but they'd all been fooled by Adrien, and they were having a hard time coming to terms with it. She'd never felt particularly close to anyone in her class, so it didn't really affect her, though she did take note of their shame. Graduation came and passed, the rest of the Wayne family coming by to support Nettie and bring her back to Gotham with them. Leaving Paris without the intention to return was freeing for Nettie. She would finally be able to remain in the city she considered home, even if it did have its own problems and eccentricities.

Their main problem was the cult, which had apparently gained a Parisian branch once her class had returned. She hadn't even known they were official members, she'd just assumed they found the merchandise funny. Nettie could only hope it wouldn't spread further. If it did, she and Tim might end up accidentally taking over the world without having to lift a finger, and that wouldn't be fun. If they wanted to take over the world, they wanted to put in the work, not let their unofficial cult do it for them.

Thoughts of world domination and cults would have to wait, however, as during their joint birthday celebration, after Nettie had turned 18, Tim proposed. The family was ecstatic about her finally becoming a Wayne, though she'd already been considered family. Planning the wedding took a while, and since there was no way Nettie could get away with having a wedding without inviting her Rogues. They'd end up crashing it if they didn't get formal invites, which isn't something anyone wanted. She also invited her adoptive parents and grandparents, though she was going to have Nygma walk her down the aisle instead of Tom.

The wedding went surprisingly smoothly seeing as it was attended by heroes, vigilantes, Rogues, and a few civilians. Tim had asked Kon to be his best man, of course, and Nettie had allowed people to battle it out for the chance to be her maid of honor. She'd been a bit surprised at how many people participated in the battle, but she was true to her word, and the winner was allowed to be her maid of honor. Or man of honor in this case, seeing as Jason had won the fight. The rest of the boys were groomsmen, and the girls were bridesmaids. Nettie had also decided that her familiars should be allowed to participate, though they couldn't do it overtly due to the civilians, but Nettie made them all little bowties and they were allowed to roam around. It had been an amazing night, overall, and Nettie was happy that her and Tim were finally able to get married.

Their cult was pretty happy about it as well, if the tweets and new merch were anything to go by. One of the presents Jason had gotten them was a matching pair of t-shirts that read "Accidental Cult Leader," and the picture of them wearing them reluctantly while grimacing at Jason had gone viral. The reluctant acknowledgement had excited all branches of the cult, which despite their hopes _was_ spreading thanks to the internet and various heroes the batfam associated with. There was no escape, apparently.

Fortunately, Nettie and Tim wouldn't have to deal with the chaos their cult was prone to create, as they'd be off on their honeymoon relaxing. They only told Alfred where they were going so that they wouldn't be interrupted except in the case of an _actual_ emergency. The bats were going to have a hell of a time dealing with the chaos the Rogues would cause without Nettie there to tell them no. Not that it was Nettie's problem, if anything she was looking forward to seeing the chaos they made for the bats. She wasn't worried about whether they'd follow her rules, because they'd been in place for long enough that most everyone was used to them at this point, even if they were a bit disappointed about some of them.

When they got back from their honeymoon Nettie would take care of the Rogues and any other problems that had occurred during their absence, as would Tim with Wayne Enterprises. They weren't referred to as a power couple for nothing. They were widely respected (and feared) as a couple before they even became a couple. Now that they were _married_ they were even more respected. Nobody would dare go after them for fear of what they'd do in retribution, and their efficiency and ease with solving troubling situations was part of why their cult was spreading so fast. What's even worse is that, while it was unconfirmed, many people in Gotham had decided that Pixie and Red Robin had to be involved with each other somehow, and had marked them as a power couple as well.

Yeah, they were definitely going to be enjoying their break away from the chaos that is Gotham. Nettie looked over at Tim, who was patiently waiting for her next to the door that led back to her greenhouse. She walked over to him and reached out, grabbing his hand so they could lace their fingers together, looking up at him with a smile. "You ready to get out of here?"

He smiled as he gently squeezed her hand, looking down to meet her gaze. "With you? Always."

She blushed a bit and hit his arm playfully. "You know I can't handle it when you say things like that!"

"Yeah, that's why I keep saying them." He smirked as she glared up at him with a pout.

"Maybe I should wear that one Pixie outfit you like so much, we'll see who's blushing then." She laughed at the mild panic on his face, giving him a bright smile as she looked towards the door that would lead them into Paris, where they would then head off to their actual destination. They were taking precautions so they wouldn't be interrupted on their trip, as the bats were wont to do. "I'm almost afraid that as soon as we leave the city will catch on fire just to draw us back."

"I know, me too. I just hope that Alfred will keep everyone in line. There's also the cult," he said that last part reluctantly with a grimace on his face. "They seem rather determined for us to spend time alone together, and quite a few of your Rogues and some heroes have joined it, so if all else fails, they might help keep things in order."

"I hate to admit it but you're probably right. Their enthusiasm over our wedding was insane."

"We'll just have to try not to think about it. We deserve a nice break away from the crazy, especially since our lives have been nothing _but_ crazy for years now. You even longer than me, which is saying something."

"It's only been crazy for like, 13 years. It's not _that_ long. And besides," she looked up at him lovingly, reaching up with her free hand to caress his face as she leaned up on tiptoe. "I've had you with me almost the whole time. As long as we're together, we can get through just about anything." Tim's gaze softened at her words, and he leaned down to meet her, their lips connecting in a soft kiss.

When they parted they both looked at the awaiting doorway with a soft sigh. "Well, we better get going. We can't keep the Pixie of Gotham away from her subjects for too long." While it was meant as a joke, it was pretty accurate. Even when she'd been living in Paris she'd been visiting Gotham at least twice a week due to Rogue shenanigans. Nettie stuck out her tongue at him before turning and dragging him through the doorway and into her greenhouse. They had a honeymoon to get to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to my stats, I have now officially written just over 100k words across all my published fics. I started writing around 40 days ago, so I don't know how to feel about this.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the last chapter! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the fic as a whole!
> 
> If you didn't hate my writing style it might interest you to note that this isn't my only fic. I'm planning on releasing the first chapter of the outtakes tomorrow, as you guys said you would like to see outtakes and deleted scenes, so there's that to look forward to. I also have a couple ideas for new fics, so you can expect one of those coming out soon. Until then, as I sort out the first chapter of the next fic, I'll be working on the outtakes for this fic and _The Contingency._
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [“I always come back,” then why didn’t you?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24884617) by [Imshookandbi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imshookandbi/pseuds/Imshookandbi)




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